Well most Africans are football mad. They're as keen on it as Rogan Taylor and yes, the African Nations Cup was held here in Burkina Faso in February. Was won by the Egyptian team in the final against South Africa. But it was interesting to hear you talking about this question of national pride because when Burkina Faso held the African Nations Cup it did bring considerable kudos to the Government here because they organised it pretty well, according to most people, it was a bit difficult for some of the fans to get into the matches and pay for the tickets because most Burkina Faso people are fairly poor. But nevertheless they followed it very, very carefully and most of the people who attended were quite impressed by the level of organisation by the Burkino Government. And it brought a lot of kudos to the President of Burkina Faso for doing that. And now, of course, he's holding the OAU summit and he's hoping to get even more kudos from that.

Mark I've got one question for you about Ouagadougou itself. It seems to me it's probably the most beautifully named city anywhere in the world. The word itself Ouagadougou to me is so beautiful. Tell me a little bit about the city and also what does that word mean?

Well I just found out this morning because I was tipped off by one of your colleagues that you were going to ask me the question actually. I didn't know but I found out this morning. Apparently it's quite difficult to transliterate into English but Dougou or Hougou in the Mali language, the Mali language is the language of the Mossi people and the Mossi Empire used to be centred here. It means something like house in Mali. So Ouagadougou means something like the house of the Mossi people. But yes it is a nice word, a bit of a mouthful for those who are listening to it for the first time. But Ouagadougou is a nice word, yes.

And as a city, well what's it like these days?

Well it's very smart actually. I must say I arrived here a couple of days ago. I last visited Ouagadougou 15 years ago before I was working for the BBC actually and it was little more than a big village then with very few tarred roads. And it's a very impressive little place now. It has a population of about one million but they've got lots of hotels have been built recently, partly for the football bonanza in February, partly for the Summit of French and African Nations which happened here last year. They've got lots of hotels, they've got lots of new buildings, lots of cranes building things, nicely tarred roads, well organised and it's all been cleaned up especially for the summit and there's lots of posters and flags around. It's really quite a well organised little city I think.

The first call is from Zeremariam Fre who's an Ethiopian calling from here in London.

First of all I'm Eritrean, I'm not an Ethiopean. What was the environmental and economic implications of the present war between Ethiopia and Eritrea?

Well perhaps you'd be better asking somebody in Ethiopia or Eritrea that question but certainly here in Ouagadougou the representatives of those two countries have been firing diplomatic salvos at each other across the conference tables and across the conference halls while the actual war itself takes place in Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is a subject which has somewhat hijacked the deliberations of the Organisation of African Unity here in Ouagadougou and the foreign ministers are currently meeting trying to put the final touches to a draft agenda for the heads of state to try and deal with when they start their meeting on Monday.

Abdul Tejen-Cole is calling from Freetown in Sierra Leone. I know that's a country Mark that you've been much concerned with over recent weeks. Abdul what was your question?

Good afternoon. Mark it is widely rumoured in Sierra Leone that your predecessor in West Africa, Elizabeth Blunt, was allegedly offered bribes on several occasions and she refused to accept them. Now considering that bribery and corruption is rife in this region have you ever had a similar experience?

Well first I think I should clear up that matter with Elizabeth Blunt. It is true that a government official did offer her a bribe and it is, of course, true that she refused it. So we can clear up that one straight away. I actually haven't ever been offered a bribe of that sort and if I were I would refuse it too.

An e-mail from Hadi Bah who's a Sierra Leonee and at the moment he's writing to us from Boston. He says, Mark, that he was disturbed by your reports from Freetown during the ousting of the military junta, he says: "virtually everyone knew that time was up but you kept reporting that they were putting up stiff resistance and that civilians were hostile to Ecomog forces when we knew the opposite was true. Were you afraid" he says "for your life because you were behind government lines?"

Well I'm not sure how that listener knows that the opposite is true unless he was in the same place that I was in. I did find myself behind the lines of the illegal military junta and I did find myself in a rather dangerous situation because the Nigerians, yes indeed, were advancing. And it was fairly clear that they were going to win in the long run, which is something that I also said. But journalists reflect what they see around them and what they hear around them and the people of Freetown, although they didn't like the military junta at all and indeed it was a very unpopular regime, they also didn't like being in a situation of war and they didn't like the Nigerians shooting in their direction. And it's true that there was a lot of anger amongst young people, many young people were asking the military junta for guns so that they could resist against the Nigerians. But that didn't last terribly long and as, strangely, as soon as the Nigerians arrived they were treated like heroes by the very same people who were angry about the military activity that was taking place. Another part of the question was I scared? Yes I was scared on a great number of occasions during that period and on one occasion actually the car I was in was directly shot at and that was a very frightening experience.

Mark there is a general question which people quite often ask of people such as yourself who have to report from quite dangerous situations from time to time. Do you sometimes feel that to report everything that you've seen and to report everything that you know would place you in personal danger?

I think it does sometimes but to temper that the dangers which ordinary people face are far, far worse, of course, because if you have access to telephones and you have money in your pocket and you can therefore buy your way out of situations in terms of getting a car or getting a plane or so on and being in contact by the telephone with your headquarters, you can minimise the risks. But the people who are around you are at much more risk than you are because you have access to those facilities. So yes it can be very frightening sometimes but it's much more frightening for the people in whose town or country you're reporting from.

Bill McCauley's on the line from Kirkland in Washington in the USA.

I was in Sierra Leone 10 years ago for about two and half years working on a development site and I became aware that much of the economic activity of the country stems from the activities of the Lebanese community and I understand that they fled the country. Are they coming back or have they more or less permanently settled abroad?

Well a large number of the middle class people, business people, Sierra Leoneans and Lebanese did leave during the tenure of the military junta before it was kicked out by the Nigerian led force. And many of the Lebanese who had contacts with the previous government, left. But then they started, you know, one or two of them would appear back and started doing their deals with the junta forces and they are very good business people and I've no doubt that some of them will come back and start doing business with the other government.

A lot of e-mails from Africa and in particular Nigeria concerning football and the national team known as the Super Eagles, ignoring the call to boycott the World Cup. A Nigerian student e-mailing us from Hull University believes that even though there are many problems in Nigeria many Nigerians are looking forward to seeing their players in international competitions and this won't distract Nigerians from the problems they're facing. So that's one comment. We've also had Marco Lembo e-mailing us from Rome and he wants to ask you directly what your opinion is of Nigeria's political future?

Well actually I was in Lagos just earlier this week and the political future of Nigeria is in the hands of the military regime. We're all waiting now for General Sani Abacha to say whether he intends to civilianise himself which appears to be one option that he has to stand as a civilian president. If he does then it will be opposed by the radical opposition movements and probably be opposed by a large number of other Nigerians as well because they don't like military government in Nigeria, most Nigerians don't anyway, I think they accept the necessity of it sometimes when there's been a chaotic situation in the past but they certainly don't like military regimes which perpetuate themselves. It's not a natural state for Nigerians although ironically, of course, they've had military governments for a long time but, by it not being a natural state I mean that Nigerians are exuberant people with plenty of opinions and they like civilian politics - the rough and tumble of it. So I don't know what the political future of Nigeria is, I'm afraid, it's in the hands of General Sanni Abacha.

Mohamed Sheriff is on a call from Virginia in the USA.

My question is actually, you know, in regard to the assistance that has been given to Liberia. Well the problem is this, the war is now over and there is the democratically elected government in the country so why is it that the West, at the moment, cannot really obtain the money and the means to help this government live up to the people's expectations because after so many years of war the government now is in power to satisfy the people, the citizens. Why is it that the West sits back and don't come to help this Government? The Government is in the interests of the people, the people have already put this Government in power, why is it that the West, I repeat, the West - America, Great Britain, Europe, whatsoever you call it, is not coming forthright to help the Liberian people?

Well I think that, I mean it's true that the war is over and that things are beginning to get going again in Liberia and that's an excellent thing. But more broadly I think I'd have to say well why is the West not coming to the aid of lots of African countries and why is, Liberia is obviously special to our listener - by the sound of his accent he sounds Liberian, but why is the West not coming to the aid of all sorts of countries?

Brank Malalo is in the line from Tel Aviv in Israel.

Hello, my question is, why, I'm really disturbed by what is going on between Ethiopia and Eritrea. I wanted to know why can't we Africans solve, between ourselves, a little problem rather than resolving into a war, all out war, that neither part can afford?

I'm from Ghana. Why can't African leaders help solve the poverty in the continent rather than, you know, helping to solve their own skins, their own political skins, which is not really nice. It's not good to their people. The people of the continent they are really suffering, it's not good for them.

Let me put that to Mark. It's a question, I suspect Mark, that the summit leaders are going to be talking about tomorrow isn't it?

Yes on this question of security I think part of the answer is that Africans can solve their own problems. I was recently in the Central African Republic and there's an all African peace keeping force there which is doing, ok, there haven't been many hostilities recently but they are ensuring the security there. The Nigerian led, ECOMOG force in Sierra Leone, to the great enthusiasm of the Sierra Leoneon people, once they'd achieved it, were seen as heroes for sorting out the situation there. I've been in situations where United Nations forces have been made up of many African soldiers and they're extremely good soldiers many of them, they're very good at talking their way out of difficult situations. What they don't have is the military back-up and communications and so on which armies need. And one of the plans amongst African governments is to try and encourage Western countries to give them the technical facilities that they need in order to do some of the peace keeping around the continent which they're quite capable of doing, in my opinion.

Let me move on to Dr Karami who's calling from Berlin in Germany.

I have a question very different indeed. I wanted to know what you think about the relationship between France and Rwanda? Do you see any signs of improvement in this relationship or do you think that the two countries won't be able to communicate with each other? I sent, one month ago, I was interviewed by RFI, Radio France International, and I spoke on the relationship between France and Rwanda and I criticised France for delaying, for having delayed so many years the discussion about France's involvement in the war.

Let me stop you there Dr Kurami. It's slightly outside your patch, I think, Mark, isn't it? But do you just want to respond to that?

Yea well it's not in the sense that I was in Rwanda in 1994 when the awful genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus took place, when up to a million people were killed by the death squads of the government. And that government was supported by France, not directly in terms of committing the genocide, but that government's soldiers had been trained by the France and many people believe that the French... there's a helicopter just going overhead, I'm not sure if you can hear that or not ...

Security's beginning to be stepped up obviously.

... Well maybe another head of state is arriving or something. They're beginning to arrive at the OAU Summit which starts tomorrow. So that's the origin of the problem between France and the current government of Rwanda. Lots of people talk about the difference between French speaking and English speaking countries in Africa, personally I think that the differences are fairly superficial. And I suspect that the Rwandan government and the French government will sooner or later come to an arrangement which suits them both. International politics is not about any sort of morality, it's about self interest, and both of those governments will find a self interest, I expect, in dealing with each other better in the future.

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