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GUINEA-BISSAU: Heaviest fighting to date
Army mutineers in Guinea-Bissau pounded Senegalese troops sent in to assist government forces in what diplomats, humanitarian sources and the media described as the heaviest fighting to date in the month-long conflict. Inland, the fighting also intensified in what appeared to be an all-out effort by rebel forces to gain the upper hand, diplomats told IRIN.
In Dakar, Senegal, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Friday that much of Bissau, the country's once attactive Portuguese colonial-era city, had been reduced to rubble.
Senegalese troops on rampage
The sources, diplomats and the Vatican's Missionary News Agency, MISNA, gave separate accounts of looting by Senegalese soldiers, some of whom had gone on the rampage. MISNA reported said that at least 100 people, mostly women and children, had been killed at Mansoa, some 60 km north of Bissau in the past 24 hours. It described hand-to-hand fighting at Uac, five km outside the town, while in Mansoa itself, MISNA said there were 50,000 people who had fled Bissau and were now unable to find shelter from the fighting.
With what was described as intense fighting across the west and the north of the country, a diplomatic source explained that Mansoa was at a strategically located crossroads separating Bissau city from a second Senegalese expeditionary force which had landed at the southern port of Buba earlier this week.
"The Senegalese are trying to save the situation in Bissau by linking up their two forces, but they must completely control Mansoa," the source said. "If the rebels block the government side at Mansoa, then the future for the Senegalese garrison in Bissau will look increasingly bleak."
The fighting started on 7 June, when President Joao Bernado Vieira sacked his armed forces chief Ansumane Mane for allegedly trafficking weapons to separatists in Senegal's troubled southern province of Casamance. The Senegalese intervention, which Dakar described at the time as a quick mopping-up operation to stop the rebellion, has turned out to be far more complex, according to analysts. So far, peace talks between government and rebel representatives aboard a Portuguese frigate which continued on Friday have failed to produce a ceasefire.
Amnesty appeal
Meanwhile, the human rights NGO, Amnesty International, in an appeal for an immediate ceasefire, also cited reports of looting and mistreatment. "Since the first shots were fired in the civil war on 7 June there have been rumours of human rights abuses by forces loyal to the government and by their opponents," it said. According to one report received by Amnesty, a communications engineer, Ezekiel Ferreira, was arrested on 15 June on suspicion of passing information to the rebels. His family do not know what has become of him.
French troops
In a related development, the Vatican news agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying they had seen "well equipped" French troops on the Senegalese side of the Casamance River border with Guinea-Bissau. Lusa, the Portuguese news agency, carried a similar report in which it said Portuguese non-governmental organisations had accused France of involvement in the crisis.
It quoted Fatima Proenca, a member of the Permanent Commission of NGOs in Portugal, as telling President Jorge Sampaiao that "there is strong evidence, by witnesses, of big moves of French military and weaponry in the northern region of Casamance." She also said she was concerned at human rights violations by Senegalese troops and at the fact that the border with Senegal appeared to be closed to desperately needed humanitarian aid.
ECOMOG: Conditional approval for intervention
In Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, on Friday, army chiefs of the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called for approval to deploy the organisation's Nigerian-led military wing, ECOMOG, in Guinea-Bissau.
However, the conditions attached to such an intervention, notably troops contributions from regional states, made it highly unlikely, Reuters reported. The defence chiefs, citing the costs, difficulties and lack of resources and troop contributions from other countries in the current Sierra Leone intervention, acknowledged a new intervention would be difficult.
NIGERIA: Further international recognition
Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoku said on Friday he had noted a new mood in Nigeria and was confident its military rulers would restore democracy. A Reuters report quoting him on his return to London after a five-day visit to Nigeria during which he held three meetings with new military ruler General Abdulsalam Abubukar, said Anyaoku expressed confidence that remaining political prisoners, including Chief Moshood Abiola, would be released.
Abiola, the presumed winner of presidential elections that were annulled in 1993, is the most prominent Nigerian politician still in detention.
Nigeria's military government agreed to free all its political detainees after three days of negotiations with the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who was in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, at the same time as Anyaoku.
"What I saw in the country was a new mood, and also in my talks with General Abubukar, a new determination to end all that in the past," Anyaoku, himself a Nigerian, told the BBC. "I don't think in terms of Nigeria not releasing these prisoners, or of Nigeria not moving to democracy. I think we can now look forward to that happening."
US delegation to visit
Following the agreement on the release of prisoners, the United States said it would send a high-level delegation to Nigeria next week, continuing international moves to encourage the restoration of democracy. State Department spokesman James Rubin said the American delegation would meet Abubakar on Tuesday.
The delegation will be led by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering. Rubin said: "The visit underscores the importance we attach to our relationship with Nigeria and to democracy and reform in Africa."
SIERRA LEONE: Former soldiers to face trial
Seventeen former soldiers accused of having links to Sierra Leone's ousted military junta are to face a court martial next week on charges of treason, AFP reported on Friday. In a dispatch quoting sources in the capital, Freetown, it said that if found guilty, they could be executed by firing squad.
They include Corporal Tamba Gborie, the soldier who made the radio announcement at the time on 25 May, 1997, that the army had seized power from elected leader Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and Commander Victor King, who headed the air force.
UNHCR concerned for Sierra Leone refugees
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, on Friday asked the government of Guinea for immediate access to camps housing more than 150,000 Sierra Leonean refugees, who it said had been cut off from humanitarian aid for almost three weeks. In a letter to President Lansana Conte of Guinea, Ogata requested the authorities to re-open roads to refugee sites near the border with Sierra Leone so that aid agencies can deliver desperately needed food, water and medical care.
WEST AFRICA: Liberia and Sierra Leone tensions reduced
President Charles Taylor of Liberia and Sierra Leonean President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah have held talks to improve security between their two countries. At a mini-summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, they signed a joint statement in which they agreed to stop supporting rival groups operating on both sides of their common border. They notably agreed to "cooperate to promote an end to continued fighting in Sierra Leone".
Abidjan, 3 July 1998, 18:00 gmt
[ends]
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/ or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
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