U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network
WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 321 covering 11-17 March 2006 LIBERIA-NIGERIA: Time to bring Taylor issue to closure, says Sirleaf GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Fighting continues along shared border BENIN: Date of presidential run-off triggers new tiff CAMEROON: Bird Flu confirmed in fourth African country COTE D IVOIRE: Rebel leader attends first cabinet meeting in over a year CHAD: Coup attempt foiled, government says SENEGAL: Lights out in Dakar LIBERIA-NIGERIA: Time to bring Taylor issue to closure, says Sirleaf Liberia has requested the extradition from Nigeria of former Liberian head of state Charles Taylor, the Nigerian presidency said on Friday. President Olusegun Obasanjos office said in a statement that Liberias newly elected head of state, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, had made a formal request for the extradition of the former warlord. And while on a visit to the US on Friday, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf told the UN Security Council in New York that it is time to bring the Taylor issue to closure. Taylor, who was indicted for war crimes by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone, fled into exile to Nigeria in 2003 as rebel forces closed in on the capital Monrovia and the United States led international calls for him to step down. Taylors exit from power was crucial to the signing of a 2003 peace deal in Liberia that ended 14 years of a brutal on-off civil war, and despite repeated calls for his handover to the court, Obasanjo had always insisted he would only hand him over to a government that had been democratically elected. Johnson-Sirleaf, who is currently on a visit to the United States, was elected to office last November in the first democratic polls held in the country since the peace deal. In keeping with his commitment to give consideration to any formal request from a democratically elected government of Liberia for the return of former president Charles Taylor, President Olusegun Obasanjo has duly notified the chairmen of the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that President Johnson-Sirleaf has made such a request," the Nigerian statement said. Nigeria will consult with the AU and ECOWAS before responding to Sirleafs request, it added. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52294&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA-NIGERIA GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Fighting continues along shared border Clashes involving Senegalese separatists and Guinea Bissau troops entered a fourth day on Friday, forcing over a thousand people from their homes in the border region. Since Thursday evening some 300 people mostly women and children from Guinea Bissau have packed into trucks and crossed the forested border, arriving in Ziguinchor, the main town in Senegals southern Casamance region. Guinea Bissau radio said the more than 1,000 residents of the town of Sao Domingos had deserted their homes after an attack on Friday. Many more people are thought to be hiding in the dense forest or displaced within Guinea Bissau, having fled their homes in panic as rebel fighters from Casmance crossed into Guinea Bissau. The rebels came towards Sao Domingos at around 5 p.m. firing in every direction, said Awa Mane, who abandoned her home and all her belongings to flee with her children. Faced with that, most people decided to flee. A string of communities along the main road between the Guinea Bissau frontier town Suzana and San Domingos eight kilometres to the south had been abandoned, according to Guinea Bissau radio. In Senegals southern Casamance region, separated from the rest of the country by the thin sliver of land that makes up the Gambia, fighters from the Movement of the Democratic Forces of the Casamance (MFDC) have led a two-decade rebellion that has fizzled in recent years. And in December 2004 MFDC political leaders signed a peace deal with the Senegalese government. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52292&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL See also: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52274&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL BENIN: Date of presidential run-off triggers new tiff The date for the final run-off round in Benins key presidential poll has triggered a new tiff in the problem-fraught poll. After holding an extraordinary cabinet meeting late on Thursday, the government announced the second and final round in the race for the presidency would take place Sunday, 19 March. But the countrys National Electoral Commission (CENA) protested, saying the results of the first 5 March round had been announced only this week and that there was insufficient time left to organise a final round by Sunday. CENA chairman Sylvain Nouwatin called for a postponement of four days until Wednesday 22 March in order to give the two candidates time to campaign. Nouwatins appeal was backed by the Constitutional Court which has called on the government to put the election to next week. A statement from the government is said to be forthcoming. Under the constitution, failing an outright victory of more than 50 percent in the first election round, a second round should be held two weeks after the first poll. But provisional results were released only this week, followed by an official proclamation on Wednesday. Given the delay in announcing the first round results CENA cannot materially organise an election for 19 March, Nouwatin said on Thursday. The Constitutional Court on Wednesday announced that political newcomer and former banker Boni Yayi, and veteran politician and lawyer Adrien Houngbedji, would face off in the race to become Benins next president. Official results showed Yayi led the field of 26 contenders with 35.64 percent of the vote while Houngbedji garnered 24.12 percent. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52295&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=BENIN For final result tally, see: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52249&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=BENIN CAMEROON: Bird Flu confirmed in fourth African country Tests on a dead duck from a small village in the far north of Cameroon confirmed the countrys first case of the deadly H5N1 virus, said a government statement released on Sunday. "Bird flu has been detected in Cameroon. A duck was detected positive with bird flu among 10 birds which died recently in Maroua," said the statement read on state radio and television. Officials said the birds died between 12 and 21 February. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Cameroon's Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries Aboubakary Sarki said that all foul in the three poultry farms where the birds died had been slaughtered. Cameroon shares a 1,600-kilometre border with Nigeria, in early February the first country in Africa to register a case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. By late February authorities had confirmed bird flu in Egypt in northern Africa and in Niger, which also borders Nigeria. The government of Cameroon promised to take care of affected poultry farmers, though it did not give any figures. Sarki said that the government will also carry out a culling and vaccination programme and that some 700 veterinarians are being trained to fight the virus. "We envisage slaughtering and destroying all birds from the infected region of the country, but we also aim to vaccinate chickens nationwide to prevent the H5N1 virus from spreading," Sarki told reporters. However, Sarki said the government did not have a store of vaccinations at the ready and would have to rely on donor contributions in order to buy them. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52160&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CAMEROON COTE D IVOIRE: Rebel leader attends first cabinet meeting in over a year ABIDJAN, 15 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces rebels that occupy the north of war-divided Cote dIvoire attended his first cabinet meeting in over a year on Wednesday. Up to now Soro had refused to travel to the main city Abidjan in the government-controlled south after President Laurent Gbagbos forces broke a long-held ceasefire agreement in November 2004. The rebel leader late last year was named minister for reconstruction and reinsertion a new post and the number-two position in government. All but three of the current governments 32 ministers attended the session seen as a key first step towards staging elections by October 2006 a new poll deadline set after the country failed to hold elections in 2005. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52239&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE CHAD: Coup attempt foiled, government says DAKAR, 15 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - The Chadian government on Wednesday said it had thwarted an attempt by army defectors to shoot down President Idriss Debys plane on his return from a trip abroad. The government said security forces on Tuesday captured at least two military officers involved in the coup attempt, while several other plotters got away. A 15 March government statement named seven military officers who allegedly aimed to shoot down Debys plane as he returned from a summit of central African leaders in Equatorial Guinea. Having been informed of the intentions of these coup plotters, government defence and security forces stepped in to stop them, Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said in the statement. Deby returned to the capital, Ndjamena, on Tuesday evening, according to the statement. The alleged coup attempt comes a month and a half ahead of a scheduled presidential election in which Deby is expected to run thanks to a disputed constitutional amendment passed last year that scrapped a two-term limit. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52235&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CHAD SENEGAL: Lights out in Dakar Senegal residents are thinking twice before buying anything that needs to be kept cold these days, and many hesitate to leave their homes after sundown. With mass power cuts suddenly the rule rather than the exception, refrigeration, streetlights and all things electrical, are now touch and go. With these power cuts, Im asking myself, what do we dare put in the refrigerator? says Bator Sall, as he plugs in a mobile phone charger at the office, the battery fully drained after an all-night power cut at home. Reliable energy is rare in West African capital cities, but in Senegal, which experiences seasonal glitches at the height of the hot season when air conditioners are running on full, cuts as serious as those of recent weeks have not been seen in decades. Weve not seen anything like this in 30 years, said Samuel Diadhiou, an athletics coach who returned from Europe to live in his native land in 1976. So for the businesses and international organisations that chose to set up their West Africa headquarters in Dakar because of reliable electricity, water and phones, life has become a nightmare of computer crashes and candlelight showers as outages hit even the central business district and black out some neighbourhoods for up to 20 hours at a time. A country out of cash, screamed a front-page headline in the Le Quotidien tabloid on Friday. An editorial in the paper carried the headline In 2006 Dakar is like Conakry, the Guinean capital where students can be found most evenings studying on the grounds of the airport - the only place that has light every night. As it faces growing anger from a public unaccustomed to being blacked out, Senegal's state-owned electricity utility Senelec blames the cuts mainly on the breakdown last December of an aging 50-megawatt power station, and on the main oil refinerys failure to supply diesel oil to several production facilities. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52291&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SENEGAL [ENDS] This is non-reply e-mail. Please do not hesitate to contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] IRIN-WA Tel:+221 867.27.30 Fax: +221 867.25.85 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Principal donors: IRIN is generously supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark, ECHO, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. For more information, go to: http://www.IRINnews.org/donors [This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page (Http://www.irinnews.org/copyright ) for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.] To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit: http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions/subslogin.asp Subscriber: [email protected] Keyword: West Africa --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mauritanie-Net" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Mauritanie-Net -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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