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West Africa's Peace Monitoring Force, ECOMOG, denied on Wednesday news reports that it would violate a ceasefire accord if rebels fail to return arms and ammunition seized from Guinean troops last week.
The French news agency, AFP, on Thursday attributed the threat of
retaliation to the leader of the Guinean contingent with ECOMOG, Lieutenant Colonel Haji Konte.
"My troops will violate the ceasefire if your ammunition seized by rebels is not retrieved within a week," he said, according to AFP.
However, ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Chris Olukolade told IRIN on
Wednesday: "I don't believe he will have said such a thing. He cannot violate the ceasefire unilaterally." Olukolade said only the ECOMOG high command could take such a measure.
Rebels reportedly seized the weapons after temporarily detaining the Guineans who were deployed along the 30-km Mange-Kambia highway, north of the Freetown peninsula. Olukolade said ECOMOG was not thinking of taking strong action to recover the arms.
"The high command believes this issue will be resolved through
negotiation," he said.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
