By Richard Valdmanis
DAKAR (Reuters) – West African regional bloc ECOWAS plans to send more
than 600 troops to Guinea-Bissau in coming days to protect institutions and political figures after a military coup there, a
senior ECOWAS source and another informed official said on Wednesday.
Army Souleymane Diallo Kelefa, General Soumaila Bakayoko, Ivorian Army Chief of Staff and ECOWAS Chair, Ivory Coast acting
Defence Minister Paul Koffi Koffi and Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin of Nigeria pose for a photo after a meeting of the
Committee of Heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abidjan April 5, 2012.
REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon
If ECOWAS follows through,
the move risks triggering renewed conflict in the impoverished nation since the military junta that seized power on April 12
has warned it would treat any foreign troops dispatched to Guinea-Bissau as occupiers.
A regional security force in
Guinea-Bissau could provide the country’s politicians cover to form a caretaker government and create a fresh roadmap to
democratic elections.
The former Portuguese colony has had several army uprisings since independence in 1974. The
latest coup has set back Western efforts to reform the military and combat drug cartels that use the small west African
country as a transshipment point for Latin American cocaine bound for Europe.
The ECOWAS source said a 638-strong
regional force, which will include troops from regional military heavyweight Nigeria along with Ivory Coast, Senegal and
Burkina Faso, would be deployed in Guinea-Bissau in the “next few days”.
He said the force would be charged with
“protecting state institutions and political figures” in the country, suggesting that ECOWAS would seek to help in the
reinstatement of a civilian government.
Officials from ECOWAS, Nigeria, Senegal, and Ivory Coast did not immediately
respond to requests for comment. A junta official was not immediately available to comment on Wednesday.
ECOWAS has
repeatedly condemned the military overthrow in Guinea-Bissau. An ECOWAS delegation went to the country last week in an
ultimately futile bid to reach a deal with the junta’s leaders to restore constitutional order.
ECOWAS heads of state
were due to meet in Ivory Coast on Thursday to discuss Guinea-Bissau as well as Mali, whose president was ousted by soldiers
in March and where rebels have taken control of the vast northern desert.
A source involved in organising the summit
confirmed the heads of state are expected to authorise the deployment of a force to Guinea-Bissau.
RISK OF REKINDLING
CONFLICT
“According to the programme, which has not yet been finalised, they plan to give their permission,” the
source said on condition of anonymity. “They are going to issue a document that will allow (the force) to leave. They are
ready.”
A United Nations official in the capital Bissau said he was not aware of the ECOWAS plan and said he had no
information that an intervention force had been requested.
A Western diplomatic source said the deployment risks
backfiring by sparking renewing conflict in a country still recovering from a 1998-99 civil war, and an 11-year independence
struggle before that.
“They (junta forces) have the homefield advantage and decades of experience. These guys know how
to fight,” he said, asking not to be named.
The ECOWAS source said the deployment of the regional force would coincide
with the withdrawal of a much smaller Angolan contingent that had been in the country as part of an effort to reform
Guinea-Bissau’s military.
Guinea-Bissau’s army has been accused by Western nations of involvement in narcotics
trafficking, and before the coup the United Nations had been coordinating efforts to shrink the bloated force and improve
discipline within its ranks.
Soldiers took power in Guinea-Bissau by derailing a presidential election and detaining
the poll’s front-runner, ex-Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, after an overnight attack on his house with heavy
weapons.
Gomes Junior, who supported army reform and was outspoken against drugs, was widely expected to win an April
29 run-off before the vote was pre-empted. The junta said Gomes Junior wanted to “annihilate Guinea-Bissau’s armed
forces.”
The army leaders said last week they planned to create a National Transitional Council charged with setting
new elections in two years, but the plan was rejected by ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations Security
Council.
The World Bank and the African Development Bank said last week they had suspended tens of millions of dollars
in development programmes in Guinea-Bissau, whose main export is cashew nuts.