Bissau, Dakar to ask for UN monitors

Guinea-Bissau and Senegal plan to ask the United Nations for international observers along their common border to check the movement of armed gangs which Senegalese villagers say are raiding their communities from Guinea-Bissau, LUSA reported. Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Caetano Ntchama told reporters in Bissau on Friday that the presidents of both countries would take the request to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. A humanitarian source in Guinea-Bissau told IRIN it was unclear whether they wanted military or civilian observers or both. Although Senegal has reopened all border crossings, the humanitarian source added, some on the Guinea-Bissau side are still closed despite an order from Guinea-Bissau President Kumba Yala that they be opened. “We don’t know why,” the source said. Senegalese villagers in the Kolda region initiated the border closures in protest against the bandits. They are demanding restitution for some 5,000 head of cattle they say were stolen. A joint commission has returned only six cattle, the humanitarian source said. Border tension has been worsened by the 18-year low-intensity war for an independent state in southern Senegal waged by the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC). Senegal has accused the MFDC of launching raids from Guinea-Bissau, a charge the movement denies.