Weekly anb12123.txt #5

[anb-bia <anb-bia@village.uunet.be>]

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 12-12-2002      PART #3/5

* Côte d'Ivoire. A mass grave  -  The BBC's Joan Baxter describes the scene 
at a mass grave in Côte d'Ivoire, where government troops are being blamed 
for the deaths of more than 100, mainly immigrant, workers. "We saw two 
mass graves here in the village of Monoko-Zohi in western Côte d'Ivoire. 
They are almost joined together and are probably 30 metres by about 10 
metres in size and not very deep -- unfortunately. The earth has been 
heaped up over bodies, but there are still body parts visible. This is 
because local people here were terrified of further attacks and buried 
their dead in a great hurry. With the stench of death all around us, 
Ibrahima Ouedrago, head of the Burkina Faso committee in the village, said 
that some 120 people were killed, including Ivorians, Burkinabes, Malians, 
and people from Guinea. Over two days, 27-28 November, soldiers shot some 
victims where they found them, and gathered others for execution together, 
he said. Some had their throats slit. Six trucks full of men wearing 
Ivorian military uniforms, and with Ivorian Government licence plates drove 
into the village, just inside rebel-held territory, and began firing in the 
air. Many of the villagers fled. Many of those who did not are now buried 
in the grave. Accusing the villagers of feeding rebels, soldiers went 
house-to-house in the hamlet with a list of names, survivors alleged. 
"Those were [President Laurent] Gbagbo's men," they said. "We heard the 
shooting -- we panicked, and we all ran," said Kamousse, a merchant who was 
showing a customer a radio when the soldiers arrived."But my brother stayed 
in the house. He said, "Maybe it's just someone shooting into the air". 
Afterward, they took him behind the house to the latrine and shot him." One 
Burkinabe woman, Adiara Ouedrago, said the arrival of rebel fighters saved 
their lives. "If the rebels were like the government forces, we'd all be 
dead," she said. She has now fled the village of Monoko-Zohi.   (BBC News, 
UK, 9 December 2002)


* Côte d'Ivoire. Fierce fighting  -  4 December: South Africa has launched 
an investigation into reports that its nationals may be fighting as 
mercenaries on both sides. -- Government troops say they have launched an 
attack on the rebel-held western town of Toulepleu near the Liberian 
border. Four western towns were captured by two new rebel groups at the end 
of last week - the latest twist in a 10-week uprising which has left the 
country divided in two. Since then government forces have recaptured Man 
and have also set their sights on Danane, also in rebel hands. A rebel 
spokesman said government forces had bombarded Toulepleu with helicopter 
gunships, but were unable to take it. Earlier, Mali's President Amadou 
Toumani Toure arrived in Lome to brief Togo's President Gnassingbe Eyadema, 
who has been trying to broker peace in Côte d'Ivoire. This follows talks in 
Mali on 3 December between Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and his Burkina 
Faso counterpart Blaise Compaore. 5 December: Bodies are reported to be 
littering the streets of Man after a prolonged government attempt to 
recapture the town. Yesterday, shooting was still being heard there. -- 
Thousands of fearful civilians have fled the hilly west, some on swollen 
feet, others crammed into rickety minibuses, as the army wages an all-out 
attack on Man. -- Talks which were due to have taken place in Accra, Ghana, 
on 7 December, have been postponed at least until next week. 8 December: 
The Government has called on young men to volunteer for the army in what it 
is calling a mobilisation against the almost three-month-long rebellion. 
All men aged 20-26 have been asked to turn up at army headquarters on 10 
December. There are reports that rebel factions have advanced eastward from 
the Liberian border through cocoa-growing country. Various French army 
sources are quoted as saying that rebels have taken the town of Blolekin, 
and were also threatening Guiglo, 120 kilometres from the Liberian border. 
Mercenaries have been seen heading towards the front alongside the Côte 
d'Ivoire army. "We are calling for the mobilisation because, with the 
increase in the number of fronts, we also need to increase the size of the 
security and defence forces," Defence Minister Bertin Kadet told reporters. 
"Ivorians are showing the desire to go to the front and they should be 
satisfied," he said. The news conference came after the leader of 
Monoko-Zohi's Burkina Faso community, Ibrahima Ouedraogo, said that 120 men 
in his village had been killed by Ivorian soldiers. 9 December: President 
Gbagbo has started talks with Togo's President Eyadema who is mediating in 
the conflict. However peace talks could be in jeopardy after the MPCI 
rebels says they will decide tonight whether to continue discussion with 
President Gbagbo's government. -- Continued fighting in the west has driven 
more than 30,000 people into neighbouring Liberia and Guinea. 10 December: 
In calling up men aged 20-26 for the government army, the MPCI says 
President Laurent Gbagbo is preparing for all-out war. It says the peace 
talks finished at midnight because the Organisation of West African States, 
which is behind the talks, have not publicly condemned what the rebels call 
a massacre of civilians. The MPCI says that before leaving the talks it 
will hold discussions with the chief mediator, Togolese President 
Gnassingbe Eyadema. In fact, thousands of young men have volunteered to 
fight on the side of the Government. The government's recruitment drive, 
scheduled to take place today, has been postponed to 12 December because of 
the huge number of volunteers coming forward. The United Kingdom has joined 
several other western countries, urging its nationals in Côte d'Ivoire to 
leave "immediately". 11 December: Government forces have now retaken the 
town of Blolekin in the west. -- France has announced it is sending more 
troops to Côte d'Ivoire to protect French and other foreign nationals. The 
French foreign ministry also said Paris intends calling a meeting of all 
African nations involved in the fighting. The Ivorian government has 
appealed to the international community to intervene 
militarily.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 11 December 2002)

* Côte d'Ivoire. Instabilité croissante  -  5 décembre. Le sommet de la 
CEDEAO prévu le 7 décembre, a été reporté. Après la reprise des combats, le 
28 novembre, entre de "nouveaux rebelles" et les forces gouvernementales 
dans l'ouest du pays, les chefs d'Etat doivent revoir les plans de 
déploiement d'une force ouest-africaine d'interposition. Les combats se 
poursuivent dans l'ouest. Des témoignages d'habitants ayant fui Man ont 
fait état de centaines de corps éparpillés dans les rues de la ville après 
trois jours de combats. Les rebelles ont accusé l'armée d'avoir procédé à 
des massacres. Les Nations unies ont indiqué que plus de 30.000 réfugiés se 
sont enfuis au Liberia. D'autres sont arrivés en Guinée, où on comptait 
près de 14.000 réfugiés dans la région de Nzérékoré. -- 6 décembre. A 
Monokozohi, un petit village à 70 km au nord-ouest de Daloa, les soldats 
français ont découvert un charnier qui pourrait bien contenir une centaine 
de corps. Les troupes gouvernementales et les rebelles du Mouvement 
patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) se sont aussitôt accusés mutuellement 
de la responsabilité du massacre. Mais les habitants semblent bien accuser 
l'armée. Pendant ce temps, les combats se poursuivent entre les soldats 
loyalistes et les deux nouveaux mouvements rebelles dans l'ouest du pays, 
particulièrement autour de Toulepleu, près du Liberia. Quant aux 
négociations de Lomé, qui semblent bloquées sur des questions politiques, 
elles pourraient être élargies à toutes les formations politiques du pays 
en vue d'aboutir à une solution globale. -- 7-8 décembre. Après la 
découverte du charnier, les rebelles du MPCI menacent de se retirer des 
pourparlers si les médiateurs ne condamnent pas les exactions. Les 
médiateurs ont promis une enquête. (L'agence Misna a aussi fait état de la 
découverte de cadavres d'au moins 86 gendarmes et soldats tués lors des 
affrontements avec la rébellion, ensevelis dans une fosse commune près de 
Bouaké). D'autre part, le gouvernement a appelé à la "mobilisation 
générale", exhortant tous les jeunes hommes valides à se mobiliser pour 
aller se battre contre les rebelles. Les hommes de 22 à 26 ans sont priés 
de se présenter à l'état-major de l'armée à Abidjan. Par ailleurs, un 
groupe de rebelles dissidents a annoncé avoir attaqué la localité de 
Blolekin, à 120 km à l'est de Toulepleu, près de la frontière avec le 
Liberia, où des combats sont en cours. -- 9 décembre. Les rebelles du MPCI 
ont décrété un couvre-feu à Bouaké et ses environs. D'autre part, ils ont 
déclaré qu'ils étaient prêts à passer à l'offensive si "rien de concret 
n'est fait" par le gouvernement ivoirien et la communauté internationale. 
Le président togolais Eyadéma, faisant preuve d'un bel optimisme, a annoncé 
la signature "dans les jours à venir" d'un accord global sur la crise 
ivoirienne. -- 10 décembre. Des milliers de jeunes Ivoiriens ont afflué 
pour se faire enrôler. Face à la montée des périls, après les Etats-Unis, 
le Royaume-Uni et la Belgique ont invité leurs ressortissants à quitter 
sans délai le pays. Le 11 décembre, l'Allemagne et les Pays-Bas ont fait de 
même. La France a décidé de renforcer "immédiatement" son dispositif 
militaire. Paris propose aussi d'accueillir les chefs d'Etat africains 
concernés et d'organiser une réunion des représentants des forces 
politiques ivoiriennes. Sur le terrain, l'armée a reconnu que ses hommes 
étaient responsables de la mort des personnes dont les corps ont été 
retrouvés dans le charnier à Monokohozi. Les combats se poursuivent dans 
l'ouest, où les forces loyalistes ont repris la ville de 
Blolekin.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 12 décembre 2002)

* Ethiopia. Meles links Somalis to Kenya attacks  -  7 December: Ethiopian 
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said he has indications that a group 
operating out of Somalia may have been behind last month's attacks on 
Israelis in Kenya. Mr Meles said that the Somali group with links to 
al-Qaeda - known as al-Ittihad -- may have travelled to Kenya by boat to 
carry out their operation. He offered no evidence to substantiate these 
views. But with senior US officials due in Addis Ababa next week, Mr Meles 
will have every opportunity to convince them that the group had a hand in 
the attacks. The prime minister was speaking after his return to Addis 
Ababa from the United States, where he said he had discussed security 
matters with President George W Bush.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 7 December 2002)

* Ethiopie. Famine - nouvel appel d'aide  -  L'Ethiopie lance un nouvel 
appel à l'aide internationale pour obtenir 1,5 million de tonnes de vivres 
afin de nourrir en 2003 plus de 11 millions de personnes menacées de 
pénurie par la sécheresse. La directrice générale de l'Unicef a estimé que 
la situation en Ethiopie pourrait se transformer en un désastre comparable 
à la grande famine de 1984/85. A l'ouverture d'une conférence de donateurs, 
Simon Mechale, qui dirige la commission gouvernementale, a estimé que 11,3 
millions de personnes auraient besoin d'une aide alimentaire l'an prochain 
et que 2,9 d'autres pourraient bientôt être menacées à leur tour de 
sous-nutrition.   (Reuters, 7 décembre 2002)

* Ethiopia. Facing donor fatigue threat  -  6 December: The world needs to 
act now to deal with the food crisis brought about by the drought in 
Ethiopia, a senior UN official has warned. Unicef executive director Carol 
Bellamy, who has just returned from one of the worst affected areas, warned 
of the dangers of donor fatigue, saying that the world must not wait for 
deaths from starvation. On 7 December, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles 
Zenawi is due to call for 1.4 million tonnes of food aid to meet the needs 
of just over 11 million people. The UN says it has enough food to last 
until early next year, but the needs for the rest of 2003 are still to be 
met. 10 December: The European Commission has pledged US $68.6 million 
towards providing food for the millions of Ethiopians facing starvation. -- 
The head of the World Bank in Ethiopia urges a greater role for private 
industry as the country was pledged US $3.6 billion towards tackling 
poverty.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 10 December 2002)

* Ghana/UK. Boys' bodies found on plane  -  30 November: The bodies of two 
young African boys, aged between 12 and 14, have been discovered in the 
undercarriage of a Ghana Airways plane at Heathrow Airport. They were 
discovered in a gap beneath the wing. It is not clear whether they stowed 
away on the six-hour flight from Accra in Ghana to seek refuge, or if it 
was a prank that went wrong. Both boys were dressed lightly, one in a 
short-sleeved top and the other wore open-toe sandals. They carried only an 
empty wallet, an old padlock and two greetings cards. Police are working 
with Ghana police and Ghana Airways to try to identify them. 2 December: 
The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority says it has set up a panel to 
investigate the two boys' deaths.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 2 December 2002)

* Guinée. Projet d'hydraulique rurale  -  Le 9 décembre, la Banque 
africaine de développement (BAD) et le gouvernement de Guinée-Conakry ont 
signé un accord de prêt de 15 millions d'unités de compte (près de $20 
millions) pour le financement d'un projet d'hydraulique rurale dans ce 
pays. L'objectif est de satisfaire les besoins en eau potable des 
populations rurales dans cinq préfectures. Le projet prévoit la réalisation 
de 1.100 points d'eau modernes équipés de pompes manuelles et 6 systèmes 
solaires de mini-réseaux d'adduction d'eau potable. Il contribuera aussi à 
la construction de latrines.   (PANA, Sénégal, 10 décembre 2002)

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