Government troops enter Voinjama

Government troops sent to the north Liberian county of Lofa to dislodge dissidents who began attacking locations there on Saturday are reported to have reached the county capital of Voinjama. “Both dissidents and government troops are within the town,” located 260 km north of Monrovia, a political analyst close to the Liberian military told IRIN on Wednesday. The government announced that one senior immigration officer has been killed but did not release any other casualty figures or the number of prisoners taken. Defence spokesman Philibert Browne had told IRIN in Monrovia on Monday that, two days before, a government battalion had engaged 300 to 400 dissidents who had crossed over from Guinea. Defence Minister Daniel Chea told Reuters on Tuesday that Liberia had “clear evidence” that the rebels had launched their attack from a base in Guinea and had asked the government there to take action. “These statements have no foundation,” AFP quoted Moussa Solano, Guinea’s minister for territorial administration, as saying in a statement. The Guinean government has consistently denied supporting Liberian dissidents, who staged attacks in Lofa in April and August 1999, also allegedly from Guinea. This time, the political analyst told IRIN, Liberia’s government was equally concerned about the security of Lofa’s northwest flank (bordering on Sierra Leone) as it is with the attack on Voinjama, in the eastern part of the county. “This might just be a prelude to what they (the dissidents) want to do later,” the analyst said. “The government suspects it’s a diversionary attack for another due to be launched from Sierra Leone.”