AFRICANEWS
Clippings
ChadFloods caused by heavy rains have destroyed an estimated 5,226 houses, rendering thousands of people homeless in 11 of Chad's 14 regions since the beginning of August, Information Minister Moussa Dago told IRIN on 13 August. "Globally we have about 30,000 persons who have been (directly) affected by the floods," he said. "Most of these have lost their homes while some have contracted malaria," added Dago, who led an assessment team that included representatives of UN agencies to the central region of Batha on 7 August.Dago said Chad hoped to receive assistance from the international community to cater for all the affected regions. The country's foreign minister launched an appeal for help at a meeting he had on Thursday with ambassadors and representatives of UN and other international organisations, he said. Meanwhile the Chadian President Idriss Deby has sent peace envoys to meet rebel leader Youssouf Togoimi in the northern area of Tibesti, and find out what he wants, Dago told IRIN on 9 August. The delegation comprises respected parliamentarians and traditional authorities from the Tibesti, the mountainous desert region where Togoimi, a former cabinet minister, began his rebellion in late 1998.
CameroonA team of experts has called on Cameroon's government to start cleaning up Lake Nyos, which killed 1746 people within a radius of 20 kms when it belched out millions of cubic metres of carbon dioxide in 1986. The three Cameroonian scientists said the elimination of poisonous gas from Nyos and another volcanic lake, Lake Monoum, should begin without delay.
CongoCongolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso on 14 August announced a conditional amnesty for militiamen who had served under former leader Pascal Lissouba. Making the 39th anniversary of the country's independence, President Nguesso said: "I have decided to grant an amnesty to all men in arms guilty of acts of war, who renounce violence."In a message to the nation broadcast on radio and television, the president aslo said that government forces were making gains in the southwest against Ninja miliatiamen loyal to ex-premier Bernard Kolelas, as well as militiamen backing Prof Lissouba. The militiamen have opposed General Nguesso since 1997. (Source: AFP)
SudanSudanese Assistant President Riek Machar is ready to step down in protest at Khartoum's failure to implement a 1997 peace pact, an aide said today. Dr Machar, who is also set to quit his post as South sudan Coordination Council (SSCC) chairman , has dissociated himself from responsibility for the peace agreement signed between him, other, former rebel leaders and the government.
EgyptThree journalist were on 14 August sentenced to two years imprisonment for libelling Agriculture Minnister Yussef Wali. Al-Shaab chief editor Magdi Ahmed Hussein writer Salah Bedewi and political cartoonist Essam Hanafi were also fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,570) each, a judiciary source said. The sentences were the toughest ever to be imposed on a journalist in the country. The opposition paper's staffers published a series of articles accusing Mr Wali of treson and collaboration with the Zionist enemy (Israel), the source said.The court also fined writer Abel Hussein $5,570. The four defendants will also pay costs and costs and compensation to Mr Wali. (Source: AFP)
Sierra LeoneThe U.S.-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the international community of neglecting Sierra Leonean refugee children living in camps in Guinea.In a report released on 29 July, HRW also said that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had failed to ensure the security of the refugees and to prevent or respond to domestic violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation against refugee children. "We're trying to do what we can within our limited resources," Marcellin Hepie, UNHCR Senior Programme Officer for West Africa, told IRIN on on 6 August. If UNHCR does not receive from the donor community the financing it needs to do its work, he said, the beneficiaries are affected.
MaliFloods caused by heavy rains have left at least a thousand people homeless in the Malian capital, Bamako, news reports said at the weekend. The BBC reported on 13 August that two people were killed as the floods ravaged 100 homes in this city of some 880,000 people.The railway linking Bamako to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, has also been cut. Reuters quoted the state railway network, RCFM, as saying that it could take 30 to 45 days to repair two bridges swept away by the floods on 1 August at Kayes, 422 km northwest of Bamako. (Source: IRIN)
| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |
USAGE/ACKNOWLED Contents can be freely reproduced with acknowledgements. The by-line should read: author/AFRICANEWS. Send a copy of the reproduced article to AFRICANEWS.
AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya
|