Senegal plans to send ambassador back

Senegal plans to send its ambassador back to Guinea Bissau after withdrawing him when President Joao Bernardo Vieira was toppled on 6 May, LUSA quotes Senegalese Interior Minister Lamine Cisse as saying in Bissau. Cisse said there were no political differences between the two neighbours. “As far as diplomatic relations are concerned, Senegal’s ambassador, who left Bissau during the events of May 6 and 7, will return shortly,” Lusa quoted him as saying. Senegal had sent troops to back Vieira before he was deposed by the now ruling Military Junta. Cisse said Guinea Bissau, as well as The Gambia, had important roles to play in negotiating a settlement to a 17-year-old separatist rebellion in Senegal’s southern region of Casamance. “Senegal and Guinea Bissau are condemned to live together,” he said on Tuesday after talks with Malam Bacai Sanha, head of Guinea Bissau’s transitional government. “They need to consult on certain political questions.”