UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci
LIBERIA: Warning against ethnic unrest
Liberia's vice-president, Moses Blah, has warned against rising ethnic unrest in the northern county of Nimba.
Blah, quoted on state-run radio, described the tension between members of the Mandingo and Mano ethnic groups as "disturbing". Blah headed a presidential committee that visited Nimba County last weekend to investigate the ethnic clashes.
Liberian newspapers reported on 10 October that armed police had been deployed to the Nimba town of Ganta to quell riots between groups of Manos and Mandingos. Reports said the riots in Ganta, which is located about 220 km northeast of Monrovia, had left the city centre deserted and some homes and businesses looted.
Some reports said the clashes are rooted in a land dispute. The unrest has been aggravated by tension between the Liberian and Guinean governments, which have accused each other of backing dissidents. Mandingos are considered by many Liberians to be close to Guinea.
GUINEA: US servicemen train local soldiers
A team of 10 US soldiers this week began training about 60 members of the Guinean armed forces. The US troops arrived a week ago and are to provide "basic military training skills" for the next month, a Western diplomat in the capital, Conakry, told IRIN on Tuesday. The diplomat said the exercise was not linked to the situation on the border with Liberia but had been planned beforehand.
[See separate item titled 'GUINEA: US troops train Guinean soldiers']
WEST AFRICA: Peacekeeping exercise
A three-day exercise in planning peacekeeping operations in Africa, funded by France and Britain, was set to begin in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Wednesday, the British Foreign and Commonwealth office reported.
The event brings together 80 policymakers and senior military officers from West Africa, together with African regional organisations, non-governmental groups and nations contributing to UN peacekeeping missions.
They will devise and simulate deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation. Quoting British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the participants would also review related issues such as human rights, child soldiers and relations between the military and civilians.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Gen. Guei flees, Gbagbo promises to form government
Front populaire Ivoirien (FPI) leader Laurent Gbagbo promised over state radio on Wednesday to announce a new government "in the next few hours". The announcement came after junta leader General Robert Guei fled in the face of widespread public protests.
On Tuesday the Interior Ministry had proclaimed Guei the winner of presidential elections held on 22 October. That announcement was preceded by the dissolution of the national electoral commission, the CNE.
Gbagbo announced the rehabilitation of the CNE (Commission nationale electorale) and said he would ask it to proclaim the results of the polls, which he is widely believed to have won, "so that the swearing-in process can be launched".
Earlier, thousands of people had taken to the streets in Abidjan, Bouake - Cote d'Ivoire's second largest town - and the southwestern town of San Pedro to demand Guei's resignation. AFP reported that he had flown to Cotonou, Benin.
[See separate item titled 'COTE D'IVOIRE: IRIN Focus on the end of an "electoral coup"'
COTE D'IVOIRE: Supporters of rejected candidate call for fresh elections
Supporters of rejected presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara reacted to the fall of General Robert Guei's government by calling for fresh elections in demonstrations in various parts of Abidjan on Wednesday.
A humanitarian source told IRIN that about 1,000 supporters of the Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) leader, a former prime minister whose bid to run for president was turned down by the Supreme Court, marched for about three hours in the suburb of Deux Plateaux.
The march was peaceful, the source said, adding that at one point the RDR demonstrators occupied one side of the suburb's main road while supporters of successful candidate Laurent Gbagbo stood on the other side, but there were no clashes.
AFP reported that similar demonstrations were held in the neighbourhoods of Marcory, Treichville, Abobo and Cocody.
Abidjan, 25 October 2000; 16:15 GMT
[END]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 22-40-4440; Fax (Admin): +225 22-40-4435; Fax (Editorial Desk): +225-22-41-9339; e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci]
[This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000