 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Breaking News:Bissau intercepts arms bound for Senegal rebels
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Breaking News:Bissau intercepts arms bound for Senegal rebels
By Alberto Dabo
"There are arbitrary arrests being carried out by the Senegalese
forces. They accuse youths of taking part in the rebellion," said one
refugee, asking not to be named. By Alberto Dabo BISSAU, Sept 8
(Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau
intercepted a cargo of machineguns, mortars, rocket launchers and
explosives bound for rebels in southern Senegal on Friday, a senior
military official in the West African country said. The security
forces arrested three men after stopping a fishing boat near the port
capital Bissau carrying the arms, which were shown to journalists and
also included grenades, anti-tank mines, dynamite, mortar shells and
ammunition. "We fired warning shots to stop the pirogue (wooden
fishing boat) that was carrying them," Lieutenant-Colonel Lassana
Massaly of Guinea-Bissau's army told a news conference. One of
the three men arrested, believed to be rebels from Senegal's southern
Casamance region which borders Guinea-Bissau, said they were
transporting the arms to the border town of Varela, the scene of heavy
fighting earlier this year.
 
MFDC Spokesman Gibba used to live at the Atlantic Hotel-
Jammeh paid for his hotel bills and feeding
Rebels first took up arms in
Casamance in 1982, accusing Senegal's government of neglecting the
region, rich in cashew nuts, fisheries, rice and palm oil and largely
cut off from the rest of the country by its position south of Gambia.
The violence has generally been low-level, but the area is heavily
mined and peace moves have failed to rein in hardliners.
Guinea-Bissau's army launched weeks of artillery and infantry attacks
to dislodge rebel fighters in March this year, eventually flushing them
over the border back into Senegal in the heaviest fighting in the area
for years. The Senegalese army said last month skirmishes had
broken out again with those fighters, followers of Salif Sadio, a
hardline leader of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance
(MFDC), who has refused to negotiate. Gambian officials say some
6,500 people have fled over the border to escape the latest fighting
and are sheltering in the villages of Bullock and Ndemban. Local
residents say more refugees are arriving every day. Some said they had
been told to leave their homes by the rebels, while others said they
were fleeing the Senegalese army. "That's why youths are running to
Gambia because they fear they will be killed."
Senegalese officials were not immediately able to comment on the latest
developments. The government is tight-lipped about the situation in
Casamance, one of Senegal's leading tourist attractions with its
palm-fringed beaches and coconut groves. A Swiss-American woman working
for the Red Cross was killed and three of her colleagues injured when
her vehicle apparently hit a land mine in Casamance last week.
(Additional reporting by Pap Saine in Banjul) |
Posted on Friday, September 08, 2006 (Archive on Monday, October 30, 2006)
Posted by PNMBAI Contributed by PNMBAI
| | Return |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|