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S. Leone, Guinea Agree to Deploy Troops Along Common Borders
Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and his Guinean counterpart Lansana Conte announced Monday that as a goodwill gesture, they agreed to deploy their troops on each side of their common border, according to reports.
Kabbah and Conte came to the agreement after talks in the northern Sierra Leonean town of Kambia. The two heads of state also agreed to re-open the road between the two countries' capitals, namely Freetown and Conakry.
The border has seen fighting in recent months between the two countries, amid a series of cross-border attacks by the Sierra Leone rebel group and counter-attacks by the Guinean army.
The heavy fighting has been raging along the borders of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since last September, displacing thousands of civilians.
Guinea is hosting over 400,000 refugees from neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia, who fled civil wars in their own countries in the 1990s.
Earlier last month, the third conference of speakers of west African parliaments called on leaders of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia to convene an urgent summit to find an effective solution to the conflicts.
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