ECOMOG troops ashore in Bissau

Some 300 ECOMOG soldiers from Benin and Niger landed in Bissau today after being held up for four days by fighting between loyalist and mutinous troops in the Guinea Bissau capital, AFP reported. They came ashore on landing crafts from the French warship, Le Siroco, which arrived in Guinea Bissau waters on Sunday at the onset of the last round of fighting. The troops were able to land after the Togolese defence and foreign ministers brokered a ceasefire yesterday between rivals President Joao Bernardo Vieira and military junta leader Ansumane Mane. News reports and diplomats said the ceasefire was holding despite earlier exchanges of gunfire. The Benin and Niger units make up part of an ECOMOG intervention force due to arrive tomorrow (Friday). Diplomatic sources told IRIN today that a Gambian company and the remaining Togolese troops will be shipped from Dakar, the Senegalese capital, to Bissau on the French warship. The troops will oversee the implementation of the security aspects of a peace accord signed on 1 November 1998 by the belligerents and permit the withdrawal of Senegalese and Guinean troops supporting Vieira.