Heads of state and government of eight French-speaking west African countries met in Niamey, Niger on Monday to discuss an emergency plan to combat lethal bird flu and choose a new head for the central bank of west African states.
The summit opened with grim statistics on the danger that could face the region’s poultry if the H5N1 virus, which first hit the region in February, is not contained.
”The avian flu poses a risk to more than 150-million poultry in the sub-region,” said Niger President Mamadou Tandja, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).
Four African countries are now known to have been hit by the virus which has killed nearly 100 people worldwide.
Since the first bird-flu outbreak in Africa in Nigeria, only Egypt has diagnosed human cases, including one death. Other countries affected by the virus are Niger and Cameroon.
The one-day summit is reviewing an appeal launched at UEMOA headquarters in Ouagadougou this month for some â,¬3,5-million to finance an emergency plan to combat bird flu.
UEMOA secretariat commission chief Soumaila Cisse, of Mali, told Radio France Internationale on Monday that the organisation will need several million euros to fight the virus.
The plan would supplement national schemes prepared by individual members.
The summit is also to choose a head of the regional bloc’s Central Bank of West African states (BCEAO) amid intense rivalry among member states for the much sought-after post of governor.
Ivory Coast, with a 43% stake in BCEAO, is particularly keen to provide the next governor following the departure of Charles Konan Banny to act as interim Ivory Coast prime minister.
Damo Justin Barro of Burkina Faso has been acting governor since December, and a weekend edition of the Ivory Coast newspaper Fraternite Matin suggested that an intermediate solution could be maintained, keeping Barro.
Sources said Ivory Coast was not opposed to a stop-gap appointment pending the return of Konan Banny to the post of governor at the end of his term as transitional prime minister, which ends in October.
The summit must also appoint a new president of the West African Development Bank following the election of incumbent Yayi Boni of Benin to the presidency of his native country earlier this month.
Attending the summit are Presidents Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Faure Gnassingbe of Togo and outgoing Benin President Mathieu Kerekou, as well as host President Tandja.
Prime Ministers Banny of Ivory Coast and Aristides Gomes of Guinea-Bissau are also at the summit. — Sapa-AFP