By Ragan M. Conteh

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Timothy Kabba, has updated Members of the Parliamentary Committee of Foreign Affairs on Guinea Military occupation on Sierra Leonean territory.

“The occupation of the Guinea military at our Sierra Leone land is a form of aggression according to international law,” he told MPs.

“The Guinea authorities are believed to have denied hanging talks with Sierra Leone’s officials for a lasting peace.

“Sierra Leone has nowhere to complain,” he confirmed.

He said the Guinea authorities then had agreed to hand back to Sierra Leone the disputed border village of Yenga, according to a joint communique signed by the presidents of the two countries.

He revealed that Guinea military had occupied Yenga, an embattled piece of land which is situated in Kailahun District, bordering Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, formed since 1998.

He pointed out that Guinean troops moved into the village to support Sierra Leone government forces in their civil war against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement and then remained there.

However, he said the civil war officially ended in January 2002 and Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and Guinean President Lansana Conte agreed at a meeting in the Guinean capital Conakry agreeing that Yenga belongs to Sierra Leone and so there shouldn’t be no further dispute over its ownership – – about who gets to get what and what.

“The village of Yenga belongs to Sierra Leone,” they said in a joint communique, citing a 1912  Treaty between Britain and France, European former colonial powers, who demarcated the border between the two countries.

He maintained that the communique, which was only published on Monday, said Conte had given his Sierra Leonean counterpart an assurance “that there will never be any conflicts between the republics of Sierra Leone and Guinea,” he stated, but all hopes turned to a nightmare ever since.

Minister Kabba said he had visited the area and spoke with the occupants diplomatically to see how the two countries could resolve the saga without rancor.

He stated that they had also reached seeking joint arrangements with the Office of the National Security (ONS) to assess the situation.

He went on, that the border dispute came to prominence when Sierra Leone President visited Conakry to discuss the issue with his Guinea counterpart.

He informed MPs that the situation is tough as residents in Yenga reported that they were being harassed by the Guinean authorities.

However, the minister said he’d soon visit Guinea to see how they possible they could diplomatically talk as diplomats in quest to resolve Yenga’s land dispute.