Why West Africa cannot break its drug habit

The recent seizure of more than two tonnes of cocaine, worth an estimated $1bn (about £675m) in The Gambia has once again shone a light on West Africa as a major transit point for narcotics making their way from Latin America to Europe.

However, in the last three years, seizures of narcotics have gone down in the region. The latest figures available from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) show that 5.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized in West and Central Africa in 2007 whereas an unconfirmed 15 tonnes passed through a year previously.

But despite the falling figures, the UNODC and people on the ground in West Africa say that the drugs trade is on the increase.

It is just that the traffickers are getting more sophisticated and the narcotics are getting harder to seize.

"Criminal organisations understood that there was a lot of noise, a lot of talk in the media, so they stood back to assess the risk," says Cyriaque Sobtafo, deputy regional representative of the UNODC in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, referring to the media attention on Guinea-Bissau and Senegal after massive drugs heists in 2006.

"But they saw that the risk hasn't really changed. There has just been a repositioning of the criminal groups - they have changed their way of operating."

This latest haul in the Gambian capital, Banjul, and one in Liberia last month in which four tonnes of Colombian cocaine thought to be en-route to the Unites States were found, suggests that the narcotics trade is alive and well.
Multinational middlemen

Traffickers are using new entry-points and shipping ever-larger quantities of the drug in increasingly innovative ways.

"There was a time last year when narco-traffic slowed right down," says Lucinda Ahukarie, head of the Judiciary Police in Guinea-Bissau.

The small West African country has traditionally been the main point of entry for cocaine because of more than 80 largely uninhabited islands off its coast and the lack of law enforcement capabilities.

"Now it has started again," she says - throwing her hands up, but declines to say why.

Ms Ahukarie has only 204 policemen and a handful of firearms with which to investigate the illegal trade.

The drugs are brought in by cartels from cocaine-producing countries like Colombia and Venezuela by plane across the Atlantic.

Traditionally it was Latin Americans doing the deals but now Russians, Ukrainians, Dutch, Lebanese and Moroccans are thought to be involved, with many more acting as middlemen and agents on the ground.

There are also reports that Nigerians, who use their infamous international criminal networks to disperse the drugs once in Africa, are now working direct with the drug producers in Latin America.

The cartels use politically unstable countries like Guinea-Bissau as a transit point, landing twin-propeller planes on the small landing strips that dot the region.

They bribe officials in the police or military for protection on landing.

The traffickers use ground agents to disperse the drugs across porous African borders and onwards to Europe, either by boat or on commercial flights to Europe with human mules carrying cocaine in their stomachs.

But while many African governments, supported by the European Union, the United Nations and countries like Spain and France, are working to stem the trade, the trafficking methods are getting ever more sophisticated.
New routes

In 2009, a few months after the death of Guinea's President Lansana Conte, laboratories and precursor chemicals used to make ecstasy were found in the capital, Conakry, with a street value of about $154m.

Ousmane Conte - son of the late president - admitted to being involved.

In November 2009, a Boeing plane was found abandoned and burned in the desert of northern Mali, thought to have been carrying narcotics.

These factors, say the UNODC, suggest that the traffickers are finding new ways to transport the drugs through West Africa.

What is likely, said one high-level official in Guinea-Bissau who did not want to be named, is that drugs production, like in its larger neighbour Guinea, is going on somewhere deep in the bush.

There is also evidence, he said, that opium is making its way from Afghanistan, through the Middle East and into West Africa on its way to the consumer markets in the United States.

Political instability in places like Guinea-Bissau, whose legal and security frameworks are already dangerously fragile, is crucial for drugs traffickers to keep using the country as a point of entry to valuable consumer markets in Europe.

On 1 April, the military ousted the army chief of staff in Guinea-Bissau and arrested the prime minister, who they later released.
"Those events were all organized by the military to have a free way for bringing in drugs," said a local analyst who asked not to be named.

Large amounts of money are made trafficking drugs through the weak states like The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, but the process does not stop there.

The profits go on to countries with stronger economies, like Senegal and Ivory Coast, to be "cleaned" in formal businesses like bars and in the construction business.

"When Ivory Coast had its war in 2002, all the money-laundering came here," says Alioune Tine, president of the Dakar-based organization the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights (Radho).

He also attributes Dakar's construction boom to the drug-trafficking business.

"When you pay high-ranking officials who are in a position of responsibility low salaries, what you get is corruption."

After 52 years of dictatorial rule with occasional elections deemed by most as pure theatre to keep the military ruler in power, Guineans will select from 24 civilian candidates, with no incumbent on the ballot.

The capital Conakry is plastered with candidates’ billboards and banners calling for transparency and stability. Night-time silhouettes of people crowded into pick-ups could be mistaken for armed soldiers, long a fixture in the streets, but on closer inspection one sees they are youths demonstrating for their favourite political leaders.

“One cannot even qualify how much is at stake,” Thierno Baldé, head of a youth association, told IRIN on 21 June, just back from a civil society-sponsored nationwide tour to talk with youths about preventing election violence. “This will be the first time ever Guinea will have a leader chosen by the people.”

After extensive involvement and financial support by the international community Guineans and Guinea watchers are hopeful. It is the first time since military ruler Lansana Conté took power in a 1984 coup – after the death of Ahmed Sékou Touré – that elected civilian rule is within reach.

But given the country’s lack of a democratic tradition, long-time indiscipline in the military, and politics steeped in ethnic divisions, researchers and election experts say the bar is relatively low. Many hope the country can simply pull off a peaceful poll in which contenders will accept the results. A second round, if necessary, would be held on 18 July.

Already there have been violent clashes between political party militants. A distraught youth at a 23 June Cellou Dalein Diallo rally in Conakry shouted about how he and family members were attacked in a nearby town by supporters of Sidya Touré. Candidates, civil society leaders and diplomats have repeatedly called for calm.

Among the encouraging steps, according to Elizabeth Côté, Guinea head of the US-based NGO International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), is a voter registry accepted by all candidates and national administration showing itself to be neutral.

“Generally conditions are good,” said Côté, who has been in Guinea for years working on election issues and civil-military relations. “The biggest issue remains logistics… But there is such a strong will on the part of all actors to make this succeed that people should manage to get past [any glitches].” She noted that there are more than 1,000 international and national observers throughout the country.

Mathieu Bile Bouah, UN elections consultant who has been in Guinea since 2007, said logistical problems will be only as significant as people want to make them. “Everyone involved – from the government to the candidates to the citizens – must demonstrate the will to make this work.”

Moving past military

Observers say in the end this election, which they say will inevitably have its flaws, is about moving beyond military rule in Guinea.

“First and foremost this election must be seen as the step that gets the army out of power,” said Mamady Kaba, head of the pan-African human rights group RADDHO in Guinea.

“In subsequent elections we can hope for a better, freer, more credible process. For now the essential thing is that all candidates commit to having one victor – the Guinean people.”

“Most neutral individuals will probably say these elections were as good as we’re going to get in the circumstances,” Richard Moncrieff, head of International Crisis Group’s West Africa programme, told IRIN. “We must get out of the state of exception and move on.”

He said flaws could lead to contestations by anyone who does not want to accept the outcome. “But I’m relatively optimistic… that people who contest it will be marginalized in the same way as those who tried to delay it have been in the past six months.”

Konaté’s role

Interim military ruler Sékouba Konaté, who took over after Moussa Dadis Camara left Guinea following an assassination attempt in December, has been praised by Guineans and the international community for moving swiftly towards elections and sticking to his vow neither to run nor to endorse a candidate.

Konaté, a long-time army general, has also been able to transform the face of the military.

“He has broken up the Dadis structure more boldly than I thought he would,” Moncrieff said. “Konaté has worked to reinstate hierarchical command, whereas Dadis was about turning it on its head.”

Why has Konaté been able to effect such a turnaround? “There was the shock of 28 September, which I think a lot of soldiers were appalled by,” he said. “Then there was the shooting of the president, which was a sort of watershed as well.”

He said Konaté is one of the people in the Guinean military who knows well the history of Liberia and Sierra Leone. “I think he made a calculation – yes, I profit from disorder but on the other hand if this country really tips over the edge most people lose.”

The longer term political role of the military is less certain, observers say.

“There is the more general question of discipline and order in the army,” said Moncrieff. “The durability of that is more difficult to measure.”

For now Guineans say Konaté’s influence has translated into a change in daily life. For years seen as the people’s enemy instead of protector, with daily harassment and frequent crackdowns in which civilians have died at the hands of soldiers, the army has drastically reduced its presence in the streets.

“We go one, two, three weeks without hearing a gunshot,” said a local journalist who preferred anonymity. “We sleep in peace now.”

Will people sleep in peace after the elections?

“We will see,” he said. “We cannot say for now.”

It remains to be seen, observers say, whether soldiers will remain in their barracks throughout the elections but signs are promising.

IFES’s Côté said Konaté can most likely continue to keep the military in check during the elections, but stability will depend on the behaviour of everyone involved.Anything can happen and there could be a domino effect if [unrest breaks out]. In this case the army might be stuck in a position where they have to act.” In the past the Guinean army’s response to public demonstrations and civil strife has been brutal suppression.

She said if results are contested and things turn bad, this would give credence to those who have warned against accepting an election, any election, in order to put a stamp of “successful transition” so the international community can re-engage in the country.

Major donors like the United States, France and the European Union have suspended many aid programmes since the December 2008 coup or the September 2009 violent military crackdown.

Ethnicity

Guinea’s ethnic makeup is Peulh (a majority at about 40 percent), Malinké, Soussou, and several smaller groups from the Forest Region including the Guerzé. From independence in 1958 to the 2008 coup that brought Guerzé Camara to power, the country had two presidents – one Malinké and one Soussou.

Guineans told IRIN ethnicity weighs heavily in people’s candidate selection.

“People tend to act ‘ethnically’, if you will, not socially,” the local journalist told IRIN. “We must educate people to vote not based on ethnicity but on a candidate’s programme for the country.”

Crisis Group’s Moncrieff said ethnic tensions persist but “that’s not where things are playing out at the moment”; he said ethnic strife is likely to be more of a problem in upcoming legislative elections.

President but no parliament

Legislative elections have been planned and cancelled several times in the past few years and the lack of a legitimate government will be an important factor as a civilian leader takes power, Moncrieff said.

It could either reinforce centralization of power – “with the president just picking up a pen and doing what he wishes by decree”, a problem across West Africa, he said – or the new leader’s position could be weakened because people could say the constitutional transition has not been completed.

Another Toxic Waste Vessel Arrested in Lagos

FEW weeks after the controversial vessel, MV Maersk Nashville, allegedly carrying a container laden with toxic materials was intercepted in Lagos, another vessel, M.V. Gumel was, yesterday, detained for bringing into the country, eight containers laden with materials suspected to be toxic.

The ship which berthed at the Tin-can Port, was detained on the orders of officials of the National Environmental Standards Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA.

Officials of NESREA, Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, and Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, were inspecting the six 40 footer and two 20 footer containers on board the ship when Vanguard visited the port.

Head of NESREA at the port, Mrs. Miranda Amachree, told Vanguard that they got intelligence report from their counterpart in Antwerp that the vessel was bringing used fridges, used television sets, compressor pots and used batteries.

Amachree explained that the report from Antwerp was a result of the agreement entered into by Nigeria and other nationals to do away with Chloro fluoro carbon, CFC, which were brought in by the vessel.

She said Nigeria was a signatory to Basil Convention which sought to eliminate the use of CFC because of its effect on the ozone layer.

M.V Gumel the ship suspected to be carrying Toxic waste at the Tincan Island Port Lagos.

Amachree said: "CFC is no longer in use in Europe and what they do is that some of them connive with Nigerians to send them here."

She said that the Nigerian Navy would have stopped the vessel from coming into the country since it had the Automated Information System, AIS, but that they did not seem to have the information on time.

A source in Abuja told Vanguard that 41 containers came from Antwerp but officials in that country intercepted 33 while the other eight got away.

Public Relations Officer of the Tin-Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Christian Osunkwo, who earlier spoke with Vanguard said that Customs got advance notice of the arrival of the vessel since May 21 and that the vessel was watched by Customs officials until the allegation of toxic materials in the containers were confirmed.

Gas leakage

Meantime, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA, has reassured residents of Kaduna and Nigerians that the gas leakage which occurred on 29 May, in which over 300 people were hospitalized was a result of their inhaling the gas that was under control.

A statement from the agency said: "Soon after the leakage was noticed the Agency dispatched a high powered team of officers to the scene of incident at the Scrap Iron Market, DICON Road, Kakuri Industrial Area, Kaduna South, Kaduna State.

Togo finally towards reconciliation

The announcement that Togo's "eternal opposition leader" Gilchrist Olympio and his UFC party will join government may end decades of political strife and violence in the West African country.

Togo's main opposition party, the Union of Forces for Change (UFC), will for the first time join government, opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio told a press conference yesterday in the capital Lomé. Mr Olympio said that the deal would give his party seven ministerial posts, which are expected to be announced today.

Togo's Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo confirmed the deal, according to a statement published by the Togolese government, which refers to it as "a historic agreement". President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé had participated in the government negotiations and approved the result.

This marks the first time that the UFC will play a formal role in government since Togo's democratic process slowly started in 1990. Togo has been dominated by the Gnassingbé family since the 1970s, first as a fierce dictatorship, later under pressure from the European Union in a slow democratisation process.

Mr Olympio has been the main opposition figure in Togo for decades and is the son of former President Sylvanus Olympio, who was assassinated in a 1963 coup. Since that, a power struggle in Togo has been fought between the Gnassingbé and Olympio families, with their respective power bases in the north and the south of the small country.

Since the 1993 multi-candidate presidential elections, Mr Olympio has been the legalised opposition's main leader and mostly also its main presidential candidate. Most elections, however, turned out to be strongly manipulated in favour of the Gnassingbé clan, many ending up in bloody riots and large-scale attacks on UFC supporters.

In the 2010 presidential polls, however, Mr Olympio stating health reasons left Jean-Pierre Fabre to stand as the UFC candidate although he remains party leader. Mr Olympio during the last months has been accused of collaborating with President Gnassingbé's ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party, or even receiving money from the RPT.

While the participation of Mr Olympio and several UFC colleagues in the Togolese government is seen as a major step forward towards reconciliation, his decision could lead to a split within the UFC party. The party's presidential candidate, Mr Fabre, today protested the decision, calling it "a solitary march by Mr Olympio" that did not have the backing of the party.

Mr Fabre, after losing the election, had united with the more radical opposition coalition FRAC in organising protest marches and claiming the official election results were manipulated. Already during these marches, which threatened to throw Togo into renewed political violence, the UFC was split between hardliners and voices promoting reconciliation.

A power struggle between Mr Olympio's and Mr Fabre's factions within the UFC is therefore already developing. Togolese media speak about a "divorce" between Mr Olympio and his former protégé. Mr Fabre claims the party leadership is behind him in rejecting a UFC participation in government, while Mr Olympio, still the party leader, says he is "the main responsible of my party," entrusted to make decisions over government participation.

For the Togolese, nevertheless, a reconciliation between the Olympio and Gnassingbé clans is good news, also meaning that the southern region of the country is better represented in government. But for the UFC, a split may seem impossible to avoid, lessening the chances of the opposition to win future elections.

Senegal slowly moving out of recession

Senegal, which has been hit hard by internal bottlenecks and the global crisis, may see a slow recovery of its economy already this year. But growth is still uncertain.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which agreed to a US$ 47.7 million disbursement to continue to fund Senegal's anti-poverty programme today, growth perspectives in the West African country are still fragile.

IMF analyst Murilo Portugal concluded that a full recovery of the Senegalese economy was still not in sight. "Following food and fuel price shocks in 2008, economic activity slowed further in 2009 because of the global economic downturn and domestic shocks, including temporary electricity shortages," Mr Portugal noted.

Indeed, the two last years saw an economic growth averaging about 2 percent. This is well below Senegal's population growth, meaning that per capita income declined in 2008 and 2009, thus leading to more poverty in the country.

For 2010, projections are still unsure, Mr Portugal noted. "While some uncertainties about the economic outlook persist, recent indicators suggest that economic growth may have bottomed out. Growth is projected to gradually recover," the IMF analyst held.

While numbers are uncertain, the IMF and Senegalese authorities have forecast a GDP growth of around 3.5 percent for this year, meaning that the population will see real but very slow growth.

Among the greater insecurities of this outlook is the still fragile energy supply in Senegal. Temporary electricity shortages are still a major problem, which could get worse before it gets better. This could jeopardise the modest growth predicted for this year.

Another main uncertainty is the development of the global market, where a threatening new finance crisis would hit also Senegal's fragile growth. Also renewed external shocks as high fuel prices would make Senegalese growth very vulnerable.

While the IMF at this point approved a major disbursement for Senegal, the Fund made it clear that the Dakar government is too ineffective in carrying out needed structural reforms. Government was especially urged to finally "fully normalise relations with the private sector," where tax issues among others remain unsolved.

Also, the Fund expressed its scepticism towards how the Senegalese government chooses its investment projects, which are often called extravagant and channelled to prestigious projects. "Investment projects should be selected and prioritised based on rigorous economic cost-benefit analysis to raise the productivity of government spending," Mr Portugal emphasised.

Migrants interned in Niger's desert

On their way to Europe, many migrants from West and Central Africa are caught trying to cross the border from Niger to Algeria or Libya. Niger is now interning migrants in desert camps, preparing their return.

The network to stop illegal African migrants from reaching the European Union (EU) is steadily expanding. First, the EU reached agreements with North African transit countries such as Morocco and Libya to return migrants before trying to reach Europe. Now, even countries in the Sahara and Sahel are cooperating with the EU.

In the middle of the Sahara desert, around the major Nigerien Sahara trade route town Agadez, EU funding has achieved the establishment of two so-called "transit centres" to interne the increasing number of illegal migrants that now are caught by security forces of Niger, Algeria and Libya.

The centres, funded by the Italian government, "provide often desperate and destitute migrants with temporary lodging, food, clothing items and hygiene kits as well as basic health care services as well as counselling on the dangers of irregular migration," according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which assists in the operation of the centres.

The two centres are located in the northern Niger region of Agadez, in the districts of Dirkou and Arlit. Since the opening of the centres in November 2009 for Dirkou and January 2010 for Arlit, IOM and its local partners have registered a total of 1,446 migrants.

Over the past years, migrants have used numerous land routes to try and reach their desired destinations in North Africa and Europe, the Niger route through the Sahara desert being among the most popular.

The trans-Saharan journey is generally made in several stages, and might take anywhere between one month and several years. On their way, migrants often settle temporarily in towns located on migration hubs to work and save enough money for their onward journeys, usually in large trucks or pick-ups.

Although a variety of trans-Saharan routes exists, the majority of overland migrants enter the Maghreb from Agadez, which is located on a historical crossroads of trade routes that extend deep into West and Central Africa.

From Agadez, migration routes bifurcate to the Sebha oasis in Libya and to Tamanrasset in southern Algeria. From southern Libya, migrants move to Tripoli and other coastal cities in Libya or to Tunisia.

From Tamanrasset in Algeria, some migrants move to the northern cities or enter Morocco via the border near Oujda. From Oujda in Morocco, migrants either try to enter the EU by crossing the sea from the north coast or entering the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta or Melilla or move to Rabat and Casablanca, where they settle down at least temporarily.

The aim of the Agadez interning centre is to intercept illegal migrants already before they make the hazardous journey through the Sahara desert and before their return from North Africa becomes too costly and bureaucratic.

According to IOM, the early abruption in Niger also has a humanitarian aspect. The migration organisation primarily is involved in works to ease the heavy plight of the migrants. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the IOM's main task however is to convince the stranded migrants they will be best off returning voluntarily.

Voluntary return and reintegration assistance is provided. To ease reintegration, IOM says it is developing in cooperation with local training and financial institutions micro-enterprise and income generating opportunities for more than 300 vulnerable Nigerien returnees, which include in-kind assistance and business management tutoring.

The two centres in Agadez are among the first to be planned in the Sahel region. In addition, the EU has wide-reaching agreements with most source countries of illegal migrants, including Mali, Senegal and The Gambia, to provide for forced return of migrants that have already reached Europe.

U.S. congratulates Nigeria's acting leader

The United States on Friday congratulated Nigeria for maintaining democratic principles after Vice President Goodluck Jonathan assumed executive powers in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua.

Washington is the first major foreign power to publicly comment since Mr. Jonathan took over as acting head of state on Tuesday to fill a power vacuum left by Mr. Yar'Adua's more than two month absence for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

"The U.S. government congratulates Acting President Goodluck Jonathan," U.S. Ambassador Robin Saunders said in a statement.

"We believe that the principles of democracy have been served well in Nigeria through the leadership shown by the National Assembly, the Governors' Forum, several ministers and the courts in finding a way out of the political impasse."

The OPEC member is a major supplier of crude oil to the United States.

Parliament has recognized Jonathan as acting head of state in an effort to end uncertainty that has threatened to paralyze government business in Africa's most populous nation and reignite violence in the main oil region.

The fact that there was no formal transfer of power for more than two months had led to doubts over who was in charge and raised the prospect of the worst political crisis since the end of military rule more than a decade ago.

The country's powerful state governors, former military heads of state, the opposition and some members of the judiciary had all called for Yar'Adua to formally hand over.

But the Jonathan's assumption of power without a formal letter to parliament from the country's ailing president has no precedent and is not explicitly backed by the constitution.

Some opposition politicians and senior lawyers have argued that the move as illegal.

U.S. Ambassador Saunders said it was now important for Nigeria to organize credible national elections due in 2011.

The polls that brought Yar'Adua to power in 2007 were so marred by voter intimidation and ballot stuffing that they were deemed not to be credible by observers and legal challenges undermined his authority in the early part of his term.

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President Jammeh meets American Actor Rockmond Dunbar

President Jammeh meets American Actor Rockmond Dunbar
5th February 2010


The President of the Republic, Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh last Friday received in audience the American film actor, Rockmond Dunbar at his office in Banjul.

Rockmond is one of Hollywood's hottest up and coming artist. Many people consider him one of the industry's most talented actors. He has attracted viewers on the small screen staring as the tough, mysterious inmate "C-Note", on the hit fox series (Prison Break).

He is also known for his leading role as 'Kenny Chadway'. A true renaissance man, he hypnotizes his audience not only theatrically, but in all realms of art. Remarkably enough, Rockmond also boasts of writing, producing and directing titles to his credit.

After meeting with the President, Mr. Dunbar told journalists that he had long discussion with the Gambian leader about bridging the gap between Africans and African-Americans. He revealed that he has two ideas that he is going to put together with the help of His Excellency the President who has given him his approval. Mr. Dunbar added that he is going to bring some features, put some projects together which Gambians will enjoy.

He commended the Gambian leader describing him as a generous person and a real servant of God.


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Inaction paves way for more bloodshed

Nigeria: Inaction paves way for more bloodshed, observers say

If the Nigerian authorities fail to punish those responsible for the latest inter-communal violence, they are only paving the way for further bloodshed, say human rights advocates, historians, politicians and religious leaders.

“Outbreaks of intercommunal violence are likely again unless the government takes swift action to hold perpetrators to account and address the root causes,” Human Rights Watch Nigeria researcher Eric Guttschuss told IRIN.

In the latest violence, which erupted in Plateau State on 17 January, at least 326 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced.

Guttschuss pointed out that following 2001 violence in Plateau's capital, Jos, in which some 1,000 people were killed, several hundred more died in ensuing clashes between Christian farmers and Muslim pastoralists across the state.

Dead-end investigations

Several judicial inquiry commissions have been set up to look into violence, but their findings have not been acted upon or even made public, Plateau State senator Dan Tom told IRIN.

A hearing into earlier killings in Plateau was held in late 2009 but nothing came of it, he said, adding that several suspects were arrested but later released, setting a bad precedent.

“The reports of these commissions must be [made public] and people should be punished for their involvement,” Tom told IRIN.

Roots

If Nigeria's deadly unrest is to subside, the government must go after not only perpetrators but also causes, observers told IRIN.

Though the violence manifests along religious lines with Christians and Muslims fighting – a majority of those killed in the latest violence were Muslim; mosques and churches were burned – the unrest is driven by political tensions over power and resources, Tom said.

“It is more a question of ethnicity than religion…a struggle for political control between the indigenous Berom ethnic group, [mostly Christian], and the Hausa, [predominantly Muslim]."

Many Hausa are not considered natives of the state and cannot access state privileges – a nationwide problem that is particularly palpable in Plateau State.

The issue of natives versus settlers was exploited when tin mining developed in Jos in 1904, drawing in mainly Hausa migrants and pushing mainly Berom natives to the town’s outskirts, Adam Higazi. researcher with Oxford University, told IRIN. From here Christian groups asserted exclusive rights over local and state political positions, power they have consolidated over the years, he said.

Tensions have mounted recently partly because Hausa communities in Jos North are vying for more political power in parts of Jos, Tom said.

Higazi said discrimination remains strong. “The state government is very discriminatory in its practices, notably in the exclusion of so-called settlers from state politics, and its views towards the recent violence in Jos are one-sided, defined by religious orientation and ethnic prejudices of those in power,” Higazi told IRIN.

“My family has been here since 1909,” Jos Imam Sheikh Ibrahim Ismael told IRIN. “But my children cannot access scholarships to further their education. They are second-class citizens."

Senator Tom said ethnic discrimination is a nationwide problem and the federal government must take the lead to resolve it.

A draft bill has been issued to bring an end to the practice of favouring indigenous groups but it has made no progress in Parliament.

The federal government must also push state authorities and civil society representatives to set up a mediation panel to help foster peaceful relations among ethnic groups, Higazi said.

An impartial investigation into the latest events must also be set up said HRW, and its recommendations be followed up and made public.
Hope?
HRW's Guttschuss said he is encouraged that several public officials have recently talked publicly about the need to tackle impunity, recognizing that it fuels the fighting.

Plateau senator Tom is optimistic. “I’m very hopeful things will change for the better in Plateau State because Hausas and Beroms don’t have any other country but Nigeria….We can’t continue killing ourselves and destroying our homes.”

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More horrors found in Nigeria

More horrors found in Nigeria




Jos, Nigeria - Muslim volunteers discovered on Friday that sectarian violence in central Nigeria this week extended beyond the long-restive city of Jos and into the burned shell of what used to be a small village near it.
Both Christians and Muslims died during the violence that began on Sunday in the central Nigerian city once known as a prime tourist destination in West Africa. The nonprofit group Human Rights Watch puts the death toll among both religions at more than 200. More than 5 000 people have been displaced.
However, as Muslim volunteers arrived in the village of Kurujantar - about 30km south of Jos - they found corpses shoved three-at-a-time into sewer pits, pushed into communal wells and scattered in bushes. One volunteer held up the charred body of an infant that lay inside a cardboard box.
Nearly all the mud-walled homes in the one-time mining town suffered fire damage or had been destroyed. The central mosque, where residents say both the young and old sought refuge during an attack Tuesday, sat burned, ashes spread across the floor where the faithful once prayed.
Community leader Wardhead Umaru Baza, 58, said on Friday that more than 300 were dead from the violence, which lasted seven hours. He said he hid in a hole as rioters armed with new and locally made firearms shot residents in the mostly Muslim village.
His causality figure could not be independently verified. Volunteers there said they had collected the bodies of about 100 people since the attack, though more likely remained.
Sectarian violence in this central region of Nigeria has left thousands dead over the past decade. The latest outbreak came despite the Nigerian government's efforts to quell religious extremism in the West African country.
Jos is located in Nigeria's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups mingle in a band of fertile and hotly contested land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.
Conflicting accounts
There are conflicting accounts about what unleashed the recent bloodshed. According to the state police commissioner, skirmishes began after Muslim youths set a Christian church ablaze, but Muslim leaders denied that. Muslims say it began with an argument over the rebuilding of a Muslim home in a predominantly Christian neighborhood that had been destroyed in November 2008.
Baza said the police did not heed the community's call for help in the wake of violence in Jos, leaving the townspeople at risk.
Baza said he didn't know where his wife was. "Maybe she's dead," he said, wiping a single tear.
Even in Jos, volunteers discovered the charred body of one victim Friday in the Anglo Jos neighborhood. Resident Adamu Bala, 22, said rioters rampaged through the Muslim neighborhood Monday after police warned the residents to flee. Bala escaped, but attackers killed his 32-year-old brother and set his body on fire. Burning of corpses is considered desecration in Islam.
On Friday, graffiti written in burned charcoal left after the attack praised Jesus Christ as "the mighty man in battle" and declared the neighborhood "New Jerusalem." However, it couldn't be determined who wrote the slogans - or when.
During Friday prayers, Jos central mosque Imam Balarabe Daud told followers that the Quran forbade the killing of innocent people and warned "hell fire" awaited those who led the violence that has engulfed the city. He called on those praying to cooperate with the Army soldiers now manning makeshift road blocks throughout the city.
Major General Saleh Maina, who is overseeing the security operation in Jos, warned that anyone violating the city's dusk-to-dawn curfew would be harshly dealt with. Maina also asked anyone with weapons to turn them over to authorities - something that could be unlikely in a city where gunshots still echo during the night.
As the sun began to set on Friday in Kurujantar, volunteers carried bodies with a cheetah-print blanket to a large grave dug in front of a destroyed home. Abdullahi Wase, 52, watched as his wife's body tumbled into the hole. Two of his sons, ages 19 and 5, remain missing.
"I cannot even shed tears anymore," Wase said.
But as volunteers shoveled the clay-red dirt in the grave, he turned away and wept.

Nigeria fighters deny oil raid

Nigeria fighters deny oil raid

Nigeria's main armed group has said it was not directly responsible for the sabotage of an oil pipeline that forced Royal Dutch Shell to shut down three pumping stations in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said they did not attack the Trans-Ramos pipeline that is run by Shell's Nigerian subsidiary.
"Mend was not directly responsible," the group said in an email to Reuter’s news agency on Monday.
"It was certainly a response to our order to resume hostilities by one of the various freelance groups we endorse," the statement said.
Shell said on Sunday the sabotage had caused some oil to spill into the Niger delta's creeks and that it was in the process of recovering spilled crude.
"We are monitoring the situation and will issue a statement [on our investigation of the sabotage] when appropriate," Lieutenant-Colonel Timothy Antigha from the joint military taskforce responsible for policing the Niger delta, said.
On Saturday Mend called off a three-month-old ceasefire in the Niger delta and threatened to unleash "an all-out assault" on Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, saying it could no longer trust the government to negotiate demands for greater control of the region's natural resources.
Mend's threat to resume hostilities could not have come at a worse time for Nigeria.
Umaru Yar'Adua, the Nigerian president, has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for more than two months and has failed to formally transfer powers to Goodluck Jonathan, the vice-president, raising fears of a constitutional and political crisis in the country.
Selling out
Shell said on Friday it was selling its stake in three Nigerian onshore oil licences.
The oil company said it remained committed to Nigeria and the move was part of its "active management" of global interests, but some analysts believe the decision will have been coloured by the country's political environment and continued insecurity.
Peter Voser, the chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch company said recently the company no longer relied on Nigeria for its growth.
Yar'Adua was the driving force behind the amnesty programme last year which saw thousands of armed fighters hand over their weapons.
Community leaders had warned his prolonged absence was stalling the programme and forcing former fighters to re-think their participation.
Attacks by armed fighters and disgruntled community members on Nigeria's oil sector in the past few years have prevented it from producing much above two-thirds of its capacity, costing the country about $1 billion a month in lost revenues.

News Briefing from the Archive

News Briefing from the Archive

Political news:

• West African peace at stake, Ban.
The recent resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government and other undemocratic practices in West Africa, especially the situation in Guinea, could have negative implications for peace and stability in the region, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has cautioned....Read more:http://bpm-west-africa.blogspot.com/2010/02/news-briefing.html

Economical Development:

• Cape Verde:
Cape Verdian economy withstands global economic downturn
The Cape Verdian economy "adequately withstood" the global economic downturn of 2009, thanks to a safe economic management and robust foundations that led to "strong" growth rates, according to the report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released in December last year.

In analysing Cape Verde's economic development by the yardstick approved in July 2006 and extended by one year in June last year, the IMF said the global financial crisis had little impact on the Cape Verdian financial sector and that despite a slight drop, "the international reserves are still adequate".....Read more:http://bpm-west-africa.blogspot.com/2010/02/news-briefing.html