Government wants robust ECOMOG

While welcoming the planned deployment of 1,676 West African troops along its borders, Guinea said it wanted the peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, to be armed with a mandate to hit back at insurgents from Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to news reports on Saturday.

The BBC reported Guinean Defence Minister Dorank Diasseni as saying that the force should be able to protect Guineans and return fire. Dissidents - whom Guinea believes to include Sierra Leone’s anti-government Revolutionary United Front fighters - have since September been carrying out raids along Guinea’s southern border killing and forcing tens of thousands of villagers and refugees to flee. The UNHCR has expressed concern for the Sierra Leonean and Guinean refugees and others caught up in the fighting.

Responding to the deteriorating situation, the Economic Community of West African States decided on 28 December to send its peacekeepers drawn from Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. They are expected to deploy within one month following a meeting, scheduled for 12 January, of troop contributing countries. Deployment will be for an initial six-months, the ECOWAS Defence and Security Council, comprising army chiefs and defence ministers, decided.