Burkina Faso issues denial

2006-01-26 15:07

Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso has denied massing troops along a disputed section of its border with Benin following cross-border clashes between civilian populations.

"I categorically deny that there was any troop movement toward the border with Benin," Clement Sawadogo, the Burkinabe territorial minister, said late Wednesday.

Tensions mounted this week between the two small, West African nations when Benin's top military officer, General Mathieu Bondi, accused Burkina Faso of launching an armed incursion into Benin in the Kourou-Kouala area claimed by both countries.

"There is no fundamental problem in the management of the Burkina-Benin border" in that area, the object of continuing negotiations since 1980, Sawadogo said.

Rival civilian populations - Benin's Bariba community and the Mossi of Burkina Faso - have accused each other of colonising each other's land and the two groups have engaged in sporadic violent clashes in recent years.

- AFP