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 335 covering 17 23 June 2006 CONTENTS: SIERRA LEONE: Former Liberian leader flown out of Sierra Leone; UN welcomes transfer GUINEA: Life returning to normal after strike ends LIBERIA: Lifting of UN timber ban gives hope for economic revival LIBERIA: UN refugee agency short of funds to help Liberians home CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CHAD: Forgotten refugees face epidemics, food cuts GUINEA-BISSAU: As rains fall, cholera threat returns GAMBIA: Justice demanded for slain journalist ahead of AU summit SIERRA LEONE: Former Liberian leader flown out of Sierra Leone; UN welcomes transfer Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was flown out of Freetown on Tuesday ahead of a trial for war crimes at The Hague for his alleged backing of rebel fighters in Sierra Leone in exchange for diamonds. Officials of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, which indicted Taylor, did not specify where the former Liberian leader was heading. But the Netherlands had said that it would host his trial should another country volunteer to imprison him, if convicted. Britain last week said it would allow Taylor to be jailed there. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed Taylor's transfer. Annan expressed confidence that the trial would "mark a further victory in the struggle to end impunity." http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54058&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SIERRA_LEONE GUINEA: Life returning to normal after strike ends Shops opened, public transport resumed and markets were bustling in the Guinean capital on Monday after the government made significant concessions to trade unions, ending a crippling nine-day strike that was marked by violence. The leading Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG) and the Union Syndicate of Guinean Workers (USTG) called off the strike late Friday after the government agreed to salary rises of up to 25 percent for public sector workers, and small increases in transport and rent allowances. The biggest victory belonged to teachers. The government agreed to permanently absorb some 12,000 contract instructors, who have lengthy salary arrears, into the civil service. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54037&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA LIBERIA: Lifting of UN timber ban gives hope for economic revival The UN Security Council has lifted a ban on Liberian timber exports and the government has promised to harness earnings from the multi-million dollar trade for reconstruction and development of the war-wearied country. Liberia's logging industry, focused on the southeast and northwest regions, has been off-limits since the UN banned its member states from buying Liberian logs in 2003. The Security Council said the government of former Liberian president Charles Taylor was using the US $15 million industry to fuel war in the region. But Liberia now has an elected peace-time government, headed by Africa's first female President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. The resolution lifting the sanctions, passed unanimously on Tuesday, said the 15-member Council recognised her new government's commitment to transparent management of the country's forestry resources for the benefit of Liberians, and its reforms in the timber sector." http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54084&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA LIBERIA: UN refugee agency short of funds to help Liberians home Nearly three years after the guns fell silent in war-torn Liberia, over 150,000 Liberian refugees remain scattered across West Africa and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is massively short of the funds needed to help them home, officials said on Wednesday. According to UNHCR Liberias spokesperson Annette Rehrl, UNHCR has only 20 percent of the funds needed to finance a US $37 million refugee repatriation programme. A related programme to help resettle tens of thousands of internally displaced Liberians is also short of cash, having received only 17 percent from donors of the US $30 million needed. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54081&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CHAD: Forgotten refugees face epidemics, food cuts In the lush malarial forests of southern Chad tens of thousands of forgotten refugees from Central African Republic squat in tattered tents exposed to shrinking food rations and infection from diseases that could easily be prevented with minimal investment. Their story is relatively untold, as many of the more than 48,000 refugees who have surged north into Chad since 2003 to escape fighting between rebels and government loyalists barely understand the chain of events that led them to the camps. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54115&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_AFRICAN_REPUBLIC-CHAD GUINEA-BISSAU: As rains fall, cholera threat returns The first seasonal rains are falling in Guinea Bissau, damping the searing midday heat but inflaming fears of another cholera outbreak in the poorest districts of the capital, Bissau. Among the maze of dirt pathways between houses, women and children gather around street taps, filling up every available bucket and pot while they can in the crowded Bissau district of Bairro Militar. Last year, Guinea Bissau bore the brunt of a cholera epidemic that afflicted over 42,000 across West Africa. Some 26,000 people were stricken and more than 400 died of the water borne disease in tiny Guinea Bissau alone. The first cases of cholera in West Africa this year have already been confirmed in Niger and neighbouring Guinea. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54056&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU GAMBIA: Justice demanded for slain journalist ahead of AU summit When the African Union (AU) meets for its annual summit in the Gambian capital Banjul next week, local journalists will not only report on events they will also recall them. Specifically, they want to remind summit participants of the murder of prominent Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara 18 months ago. The Gambia Press Union is urging the summit to press the Gambian government to allow a private investigation from abroad into the murder. Hydara was shot dead in his car about 15 minutes after leaving the offices of the The Point newspaper on the evening of 16 December 2004. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54112&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GAMBIA [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. 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