Four arrested for dissident activity

Liberia’s Defence Ministry spokesman Phillibert Browne confirmed on Thursday the arrest of four people suspected of “coordinating dissident activities”, AFP reported. He told the agency that the detained included Mary Saydee, the sister of Joe Wyllie, spokesman for the anti-government group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy. Saydee and three military intelligence officers were arrested on Saturday for collaborating with anti-government forces fighting the army in Lofa County. Browne said they would be handed over to the Justice Ministry after the Defence Intelligence Unit finished its preliminary investigations. The government has launched a determined drive to push back the Liberian dissidents whom it says invaded from Guinea, a claim Conakry denies. BBC reported that the dissidents described as “a lie” the government claim that it had recaptured the town of Foya, some 280 km north of the capital, Monrovia. The fighting has caused thousands of people to flee Lofa County. Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation, told IRIN it had registered 27,647 IDPs up to 21 May. It said 20,597 of them were in neighbouring Bong County.