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Mediation in Casamance "natural" - Yala

    ABIDJAN

    Guinea-Bissau's efforts to find peace in southern Senegal's troubled Casamance area is "a natural situation", Guinea-Bissau President Kumba Yala said on Friday prior to his departure for Senegal to attend the presidential inauguration.

    "We are brothers. I think no-one asks to be anyone's neighbour," LUSA reported Yala as saying.

    He added that he hoped to discuss "various questions related to
    cooperation in the subregion and the profound relationship existing between Guinea-Bissau and Senegal" during his talks with President Abdoulaye Wade.

    Relations between the two countries were tested during Guinea-Bissau's recent conflict which followed the June 1998 uprising against president Joao Bernardo Vieira. Vieira, called in Senegalese troops to help put down the revolt but was deposed in May 1999.

    Subsequently, he was accused of failing to stop some senior army officers from smuggling arms to pro-independence Casamance guerrillas.

    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

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