Guinea-Bissau repulses attack

2006-03-17 20:25

Sao Domingos - Guinea-Bissau soldiers battled members of a former separatist group from the neighbouring Casamance province of Senegal on Friday, military sources said.

The army repulsed the armed militants of a faction of the Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), who were trying to buy weapons in the Guinea-Bissau town of Sao Domingos, military sources said.

Rocket launchers and machine-gun fire were heard in the town in the early hours of Friday.

The clashes, and an incident on Thursday when Guinea-Bissau soldiers attacked an insurgent base, were the first serious outbreak of violence in more than two years, since a peace process began in Senegal.

A journalist saw Guinea-Bissau soldiers fire on armed civilians, who took flight, abandoning weapons that were later picked up by the troops.

The army said the insurgents were led by Salif Sadio, who has proclaimed himself "general in chief" of the MFDC, a force that launched a separatist bid from the north of Senegal in the early 1980s.

- AFP