Offensive will continue until rebel positions destroyed, president

Guinea Bissau troops will continue their offensive in the north until all the Senegalese rebel bases established there in the last month have been “destroyed”, President Joao Bernardo Vieira told IRIN. Clashes between Guinea Bissau soldiers and a faction of the Senegalese secessionist group, the Movement for the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) from the region that borders Guinea Bissau, erupted in mid-March with MFDC fighters taking positions in northern Guinea Bissau. “The Guinea Bissau military will remain at the border until the total destruction of all the rebels in Guinea Bissau territory,” President Vieira told IRIN on Thursday. “If the rebels are from the Casamance then they must base their cause in the Casamance and not in Guinea Bissau territory.” Casamance is separated from the rest of Senegal by a sliver of land that makes up the Gambia. For two decades the MFDC has led a secessionist battle that has waned in recent years. In December 2004 MFDC political leaders signed a peace accord with President Wade’s government, but not all the MFDC fighting units agreed to the deal. It is unclear how the fighting started, but one MFDC insider told IRIN that the trouble began on the 14 March when one hard-line MFDC faction leader, Salif Sadio, clashed with another MFDC faction. The fighting spilled over the border and Guinea Bissau troops became involved, he said. The fighting has cut off up to 20,000 people in farming and fishing communities between the northern border town of Sao Domingos and Guinea Bissau’s western coast, local religious leaders estimate. Many of the impoverished residents, unable to travel to market or trade their produce, have eaten up food reserves that should sustain them until the beginning of the raining season two months away. Others fled their homes to escape the fighting. According to the International Committee for the Red Cross in the capital Bissau, some 7,150 people have been displaced by the fighting in northern Guinea Bissau. And the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said some 350 have fled over the border to Senegal. Earlier this week the government of Guinea Bissau announced it would be releasing over US $120,000 of state funds to help the displaced and isolated communities in the north. But Adelina na Tamba, minister for social affairs and action against poverty, said that the government would have to make their own assessment of the number of displaced before they would be in a position to provide assistance. Guinea Bissau is at the beginning of the cashew nut harvest - the main cash crop in the country. But farmers say they have been unable to reach their plantations for the fighting and fresh landmines being planted in the area.