By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Mano River Union Secretary General, Ambassador Madina Wesseh has expressed optimism for a permanent resolution of the impasse between two of its member countries, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
It followed her visit to the disputed border town of Yenga, which is one of two sticky points between the two countries, the border closure by Conakry being the other.
Updating the press on efforts by the regional body towards addressing the long Yenga impasse, Ambassador Wesseh said she was impressed with the level of tolerance and mutual respect she said the two countries had demonstrated.
“His Excellency Professor Alpha Conde, President of the Republic of Guinea reaffirmed the commitment of his government towards strengthening bilateral ties between the two member States which have strong historical, political socio-economic and cultural ties as well as heightening the importance of the free movement of people, goods and services which serves as a critical aspect of development for both members states,” she said.
She went on to say that for as long as there was the political will between the two countries, they could decide on what kind of framework would be best suited for them to lay the issue to rest.
That she said could be done at the state bilateral level.
She added that a delegation from the MRU secretariat visited the affected communities for an assessment to identify the issue and to engage stakeholders including the Joint Border Management Team with the view to designing strategies for peaceful coexistence.
She explained that the mission engaged local authorities of both Koindu and Nongoa from which they gathered information to be used at the “most” strategic levels of the two member states.
She added that during the engagements with local authorities in the village of Yenga, one of the recommendations that stood out for the promotion of peace was the introduction of activities that would boost economic development and promote social cohesion amongst our border communities.
She said that part of the issues that came up during their assessment was the inefficiency of the border units.
However, she said with engagement the MRU by the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel through the Joint Border and Security Confidence Building Unit strategy had been to bring these units to function and hoped that they could get state parties to support these parties to function effectively, adding that they did not want them to report directly to them. She said they did not want these units to report directly to them but that they wanted their activities to be consultative and engaging of the relevant stakeholders, to patrol, and provide information.
This is what she said they were going to be engaged on in the next three to four months to see how they could pick some of these activities up.
She went on to mention the ongoing road construction project supported by the African Development Bank through the MRU initiative. This she said would promote integration and enhance trade as well as movement of the people and goods.
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