instability again in GB? too bad the nuts in control at 'chUmpion' (not a spelling mistake)spent a yr navel gazing instead of getting the SA loan and moving this fwd. Now they are likely to sit on it again for another yr
Insecurity Persists
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
June 30, 2001
Posted to the web July 1, 2001
Guinea-Bissau's armed forces shelled positions held by a faction of Senegal's Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) along the border between the two countries on Monday and Tuesday, sources in Ziguinchor, the main town in southern Senegal, told IRIN.
The sources said the Guinea-Bissau military bombarded the positions of MFDC commander Salif Sadio from the town of Sao Domingos, less than 10km south of the border. The Guineans were supported by a rival faction of the MFDC loyal to Leopold Sagna, the sources said. Sagna has reportedly been detained for months by Sadio.
The MFDC has been fighting since 1982 for self-rule for Casamance, which is in southern Senegal.
Just days before the fighting, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had reported that the biggest security threat to Guinea-Bissau came from MFDC activities on its northern border. "Armed skirmishes between rival factions of the MFDC continue, sometimes on Bissau-Guinean territory, and have caused additional security problems, especially when innocent civilians have been killed or hurt as a side effect of the fighting," he reported to the Security Council on 22 June.
Annan said that since March, when he issued his last report on the country, Guinea-Bissau also saw prolonged and considerable friction between President Kumba Yala and the legislature over the appointment of Prime Minister Faustino Imbali, further indicating the fragile state of the country's democratic process.
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