Senegal announced yesterday it would begin pulling out 700 more troops from Guinea Bissau, under an agreement designed to re-establish lasting peace in that country, news organisations reported, quoting an army statement. This will bring to 900, the total number of Senegalese troops withdrawn from Guinea Bissau where, with Guinean troops, they have been defending the besieged administration of President Joao Bernardo Vieira against a military revolt.
According to the Portuguese news agency Lusa, the Military Junta, which is represented in a joint military commission overseeing the implementation of a peace accord that ended the war, said it had suspended its participation because of Senegal’s repeated delays in pulling out its forces.
Guinean and Senegalese troops are to be withdrawn by the end of February at the latest and are being replaced by the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG. There are some 600 ECOMOG troops in Guinea Bissau:
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