A pro-independence group in southern Senegal, the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), denied on Tuesday media reports that it tried to free its comrades held by police in the northern Guinea-Bissau town of Sao Domingo.
The French news agency, AFP, reported on Monday that 20 MFDC members had ransacked the Sao Domingo police station on Thursday in a bid to free their colleagues.
MFDC spokesman Alexandre Djiba told IRIN on Tuesday from The Gambia that the report, citing “informed sources”, was untrue. He said that 19 Casamance residents arrested on Sunday by the Guinea-Bissau authorities had been freed. Djiba said their detention was most likely “in retaliation” for the arrest in Senegal of three Guinea-Bissau farmers, two of whom had since been released, while the third was receiving treatment for bullet wounds in a hospital in the eastern Senegalese town of Tambacounda.
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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