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 337 covering 1 July 7 July 2006 IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 337 covering 1 July 7 July 2006 CONTENTS: COTE D IVOIRE: Decision on peace-sealing elections in September CHAD: New skirmishes reported as UN mulls options MALI: Government strikes new peace deal with Tuareg rebels GUINEA: Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mbaranga Gasarabwe GAMBIA: Civil liberties under fire in election run-up NIGER: Dead country campaign against high cost of living BENIN: Prison inmates "like corpses in the drawers of a morgue COTE D IVOIRE: Decision on peace-sealing elections in September The UN will decide in September if Cote dIvoires peace-sealing presidential elections can go ahead as scheduled for October, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said after a mini-summit convened on the Ivorian crisis. Annan suggested at an African Union summit last weekend that the election may have to be delayed because of delays in preparations for the poll. Elections were to have been held last October but were delayed by a year under a UN peace plan providing for disarmament of both rebels and pro-Gbagbo militia, as well as for an update of electoral rolls before the ballot. Disarmament has been delayed several times. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54433&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE CHAD: New skirmishes reported as UN mulls options Skirmishes between the army and anti-government rebels are on the rise again in Chads lawless far east as the United Nations considers how best to support peacekeeping in the troubled region. Chadian President Idriss Deby has asked the UN to provide peacekeepers to help protect Chadian civilians and the 12 camps for Sudanese refugees the UN runs in Chad. But after a meeting with Deby, also at the AU summit, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told reporters on Sunday that a decision had not yet been reached. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54416&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CHAD MALI: Government strikes new peace deal with Tuareg rebels Some 15 years after signing a peace deal to end a Tuareg rebel uprising, the government of Mali has responded to threats of new trouble from the desert nomads by striking a new agreement with the help of Algerian mediators. The deal between the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure and rebels from the north-eastern Kidal region was signed in the Algerian capital on Monday and unveiled by the government the following day. Tuareg rebels from the remote area near the Algerian border say their people have been neglected by the central government. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54417&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=MALI GUINEA: Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mbaranga Gasarabwe As protests against poverty mount in Guinea, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mbaranga Gasarabwe says the challenge will be to see whether foreign donors stump up funds to help the troubled West African nation. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54467&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA GAMBIA: Civil liberties under fire in election run-up As The Gambia gears up for presidential elections in September questions are being raised about the preparations for the polls, but a clampdown on local journalists means independent scrutiny is in short supply. In an interview with IRIN, the leader of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Ousainu Darboe, alleged there are problems with the way new voters are being registered. Sam Sarr, editor-in-chief of the bi-weekly Foroyaa newspaper, said Darboes allegations about interference with voter registration are true. A clampdown on the media means that criticism, especially in the local Mandinka, Fula and Wolof languages, is likely to remain next to non-existent. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54471&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GAMBIA NIGER: Dead country campaign against high cost of living Petrol at over US $1 per gallon and soaring electricity, mobile telephone, education and medical bills are uniting Nigers citizens, who have turned the capital Niamey into a dead country three times in the past month. On Thursday, thousands of people turned out in the streets of the capital under the umbrella of the Coalition Against the High Cost of Living, to protest price hikes that they say are putting basic utilities and services out of the reach of most Nigeriens. Protesters were virtually the only sign of life in the capital on 15 and 22 June, when shop owners also shuttered their stores and taxi and bus drivers stayed off the roads. Utility prices have been on the rise since the government started privatising state-owned utility companies. Niger has been implementing structural reform policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank since the mid-1990s. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54469&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGER BENIN: Prison inmates "like corpses in the drawers of a morgue Maggots usually digest the bodies of the dead. In Benins cramped and decaying prison of Abomey they infest the flesh of the living. The skin of many prisoners in Abomey is ragged due to the extraction of fly larvae, a scourge that is symptomatic of the deplorable conditions of one of Benins oldest prisons. Many inmates also suffer from tuberculosis, scabies, parasites, lung infections or other illnesses. The civilian prison of Abomey, located in southern Benin, was built in 1904 to house a maximum of 150 prisoners. Now more than 1,000 inmates are crammed into small, fetid cells that lack proper ventilation or sanitation, according to Dominique Sounou, executive director of the Dispensary of Prisoners and Indigents (DAPI), a local non-governmental organisation that looks after the health of the inmates at Abomey. Although Benin is considered to have one of the more sophisticated and respected judiciaries in West Africa, it still lags far behind more developed nations in terms of expediency and fairness, according to rights workers. The government has constructed a new detention facility at Akpo Missrete in the southeast. When it is ready, prisoners from Cotonou, Porto-Novo and Ouidah will be transferred there. Prisoners at Abomey will stay where they are. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54415&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=BENIN [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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
_______________________________________________ M-net mailing list [email protected] http://mauritanie-net.com/mailman/listinfo/m-net_mauritanie-net.com
