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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
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SIERRA LEONE: Commission for war-affected children planned
A national commission on war-affected children to be set up in Sierra Leone is expected to boost overall efforts to meet the needs of the victims, according to UNICEF, which supported a two-day consultative and planning workshop on the establishment of the commission.
OCHA said in its Humanitarian Situation Report of 8 to 27 August that recommendations on setting up the commission would be presented at a conference on war-affected children to be held on 10-17 September in Winnipeg, Canada.
The report said ex-child soldiers from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the West Side Boys, as well as abductees continued to show up at demobilisation centres in Lungi, just north of Freetown, and Daru in the east. This, the report added, was due to confidence-building activities by UNAMSIL and the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration.
OCHA said 79 children were transferred to interim care centres in Daru during the period under review. UNICEF was scheduled to provide technical assistance and money for the demobilisation and reintegration of the children.
UNICEF and GOAL, an aid organisation, have asked the Freetown City Council to provide land for the construction of a centre for the city's street children, OCHA said. The facility will provide care for some 1,000 children and serve as an educational, counseling and recreational centre. UNICEF is supporting GOAL's efforts for 170 street children in the capital.
SIERRA LEONE: Criminals earn notoriety through abduction
Most members of the band that abducted 11 British soldiers and a Sierra Leonean colleague on 25 August, are uneducated criminals and drug users between 17 and 40 years old, Sierra Leonean Army Information Officer Major John Milton told IRIN. No one knows exactly how many they are but, Milton, estimated that they numbered at least 200.
[For full story see item titled 'SIERRA LEONE: IRIN Focus on the West Side Boys']
LIBERIA: President suspends defence minister
President Charles Taylor of Liberia on Monday suspended his defence minister, Major General Daniel Chea, for insubordination and placed him under house arrest amid mounting tension over military activity on the country's border with Guinea.
Chea was suspended indefinitely over "an administrative assignment that was not carried out", Information Minister Joe Mulbah told IRIN on Tuesday. Chea's house in Monrovia is being guarded by members of the Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU), which is under the command of the Executive Mansion. "The president has a right, instead of sending him to the central prison, to keep him under arrest in his own home," Mulbah told IRIN.
If the suspension goes deeper than an administrative matter, analysts in Monrovia said, it could signal a growing rift within the country's military. Chea had just returned from Liberia's northern county of Lofa, where troops have been fighting back a reported armed incursion by dissidents allegedly based in Guinea. Mulbah said Chea's suspension "had nothing to do with the fighting".
[For full story see 'LIBERIA: Taylor suspends defence minister for insubordination']
NIGERIA: Federal government threatens to use troops to halt oil vandals
The Federal government said on Monday that it was giving state governments two weeks to end arson attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, failing which it would assign the army to the task, according to news reports.
Monday's ultimatum followed a meeting between Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, service chiefs, governors and representatives of oil-producing states, and oil sector officials, the 'Post Express' reported.
The decision followed persistent attacks on pipelines that cost the government some US $43 million this year, Atiku's spokesman, Chris Mamam, told reporters in Abuja. There have been 400 pipeline leakages this year, he said, 24 of which were detected last weekend. The government's planned crackdown, he added, was also aimed at ensuring investor confidence in the oil sector.
Militant youths throughout the Delta have taken to kidnapping oil workers and sabotaging pipelines in an effort to attract greater development of the much neglected region.
When President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered federal troops into the oil town of Odi, in Bayelsa State, in December 1999 to arrest the killers of 12 policemen; the soldiers unleashed a level of destruction that shocked the nation.
UNITED NATIONS: Annan calls for concrete steps on global problems
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday challenged world leaders converging on the United Nations for the Millennium Summit to seize the occasion to renew the UN's mission and purpose. He also called on them to follow up on their political commitment with concrete steps in tackling extreme poverty, conflict and other crucial global problems, UN News reported.
Speaking at a news conference at UN Headquarters, Annan described the 6-8 September summit, billed as the largest ever gathering of heads of state and government, as "a defining moment" for the world's leaders and the UN.
"As the unique forum for global debate, and as the indispensable instrument for global progress, the United Nations must rise to the occasion," Annan said. "The Summit offers a real chance for the leaders of the world to make the UN a more effective servant of the world's people."
UNITED NATIONS: Conference for war-affected children
A conference that aims to get the international community to fulfil its commitments to protect children affected by war begins on Sunday in Winnipeg, Canada, UNICEF said.
The eight-day event will examine how the international community will strengthen mechanisms for preventing the abuse of children during wartime and for making sure perpetrators do not go unpunished. An agenda and plan of action developed at the conference will be presented to the UN Special Session on Children scheduled for 2001, UNICEF said on Tuesday.
The Winnipeg meeting, to be chaired by Graca Machel - author of a major 1996 UN study on children and armed conflict - will be divided into three parts.
Youths from Canada and war-affected countries get together on 10-12 September for a Young Meeting to identify and analyse issues important to them. UNICEF will co-host an Experts' Meeting on 13-15 September involving NGOs, government officials, academics, the private sector, youth and international organisations. These sectors are also to be represented at a ministerial-level meeting on 16-17 September.
Abidjan, 5 September 2000; 18:30 GMT
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