West Africa Bloc Mulls Sending Intervention Into Guinea

The West African regional grouping ECOWAS is considering sending an “intervention force” comprising of civilians and soldiers into Guinea to prevent an occurrence of civil war in the country.

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mohamed Ibn Chambathe, warned that if Guinea slid into war it would destabilize the entire West African region and undermine the ECOWAS efforts to consolidate peace in post-conflict countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast.

However, the ruling Guinean junta’s spokesman Col Moussa Keita dismissed the proposal, saying any effort to send foreign forces to Guinea without the military government’s consent will be considered an assault on the country’s authority and integrity.

Guinea’s military leader Captain Dadis Moussa Camara was shot earlier this month in a failed assassination attempt. Captain Camara’s former aide Aboubacar Diakite and 100 other soldiers have been arrested over the shooting.

Earlier on September 28, at least 157 people died and women raped by soldiers who opened fire on unarmed anti-Camara protesters at a rally in Conakry. [GR]