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Guinea holding 17 dissident rebels after border clash

Map of Guinea showing location of Forest Region. IRIN
Nouvel accrochage entre l'armée guinéenne et des combattants des forces rebelles
Guinea is holding captive 17 alleged members of a dissident Ivorian rebel group following a clash with Guinean soldiers on the border with Cote d’Ivoire in which one gunman was killed, security sources said. Security officials, who asked not to be identified, said the captives were being held in the town of Nzerekore in the remote southeastern Forest Region of Guinea by the Regional Defence and Security Committee, a team of military and civilian officials. One of the men was reported to be a native of France. The fighters, said to be heavily armed, were taken prisoner by Guinean troops following what the sources described as a heavy gun battle last Thursday in a village by the border. Guinean security officials said most of the group were believed to be members of a dissident faction of Cote d’Ivoire’s New Forces rebel movement, which has been in control of the northern half of Cote d’Ivoire since September 2002. The leader of the faction, Ibrahim Coulibaly, is opposed to New forces leader Guillaume Soro. Coulibaly was widely credited with masterminding a military coup in 1999. On Friday a spokesman for the New Forces told IRIN that none of its fighters had been involved in the clash with Guinean soldiers. But the spokesman admitted that rebel deserters may have been responsible for the incident. “If there were clashes with armed men it would have been with uncontrolled elements who have deserted our ranks and who are in neighbouring countries,” Amadou Kone, one of Soro’s top aides, told IRIN. “We have no reason to attack Guinea,” he added. “If the country is used as a rear base for (President Laurent) Gbagbo’s militias we will push them back as far as possible. But that is not the case today”. Diplomats and aid workers say the Forest Region bordering Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia is awash with weaponry and undisciplined bands of armed men. In the past, the area served as a fertile recruiting ground for mercenaries who fought for different factions in both neighbouring countries. Rival warlords within the Ivorian rebel movement have frequently clashed between themselves, particularly in the northern city of Korhogo and the western city of Man. The rebels have frequently accused Gbagbo of planning to launch an attack on their positions in Western Cote d'Ivoire by infiltrating a force across the border from Guinea with the connivance of Guinean President Lansana Conte. Pro-Gbagbo militias attacked the rebel frontline position at Logouale in western Cote d'Ivoire on 28 February triggering fears that the world’s top cocoa producer was sliding back into full-scale war. But last week the two sides agreed to end all hostilities and complete the implementation of a frozen peace accord at talks in Pretoria mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki. A first step towards disarmament is scheduled to take place at a meeting on Thursday in the northern rebel stronghold of Bouake unless new problems arise in the meantime. Some 10,000 UN and French troops monitor a de-militarised buffer zone along the frontline that divides the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire from the government-controlled south.

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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