60 Guinea-Bissau troops killed
2006-04-02 21:51
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Ziguinchor - Dozens of Guinea-Bissau soldiers have died since mid-March in fighting along the Senegal border and hundreds have deserted, according to a soldier.
The sound of gunshots continued to ring on Sunday through this restive pocket of West Africa.
The Guinea-Bissau government has made no official statement on casualties or deserters.
But the soldier said 60 Guinea-Bissau fighters have died at the front since fighting began on March 14, with some killed in combat and others by mines.
About the same number of soldiers have been injured, said the soldier, who did not want to be identified out of fear he would be kicked out of the army or arrested.
The soldier said hundreds of soldiers have defected from the front lines for the rear forces based around Sao-Domingo, a Guinea-Bissau town about 8km from the Senegal border.
Others also said soldiers had died in the sporadic border clashes that have forced thousands of villagers to flee across the border into southern Senegal, but all refused to give their names.
Fighting has reignited along the border and in Senegal's southern Casamance region in recent weeks following five years of relative peace.
Two factions of the Casamance independence movement, one led by Salif Sadio and the other by Cesar Badiate, have been facing off against the Guinea-Bissau army along the tense border.
"I saw lots of wounded Guinea-Bissau soldiers by the border, and some of them told me they were being evacuated to Dakar to be treated," said Abdoul Diallo, a merchant based in Sao Domingo.
Officials in the southern Senegal town of Ziguinchor said recently that they had registered more than 2 000 refugees from Guinea-Bissau.
Far-off gunshots could be heard in Ziguinchor again on Sunday, suggesting that fighting continues.
Tagme Na Waye, the head of the Guinea-Bissau army, said on Wednesday that the country's troops were just 150m from the area held by Salif Sadio.
Casamance is separated from most of the rest of Senegal by the nation of Gambia, and rebels have been pressing for the region's independence since 1982.
They argue France never fully colonised Casamance so it should be a separate nation from Senegal, which gained independence in 1960.
- AP