TUESDAY, 4.30PM
BETWEEN 200 and 300 Comoran soldiers set sail on Tuesday to intervene on the island of Anjouan in the Indian Ocean republic, where a separatist uprising has broken out, eyewitnesses reported.
Soldiers were seen preparing to leave for Anjouan aboard two civilian ferries during the night from Moroni port on the main island of Grande Comore.
Comoran authorities refused officially to comment on the troop movements, but on Monday the foreign minister published a statement issuing a “strong warning” to separatist activists on Anjouan, who the statement accused of forming a “movement of terror and debauchery”.
Separatists on Anjouan and neighbouring Moheli have unilaterally declared independence from Moroni in the wake of protests that have claimed at least four lives since March in the archipelago.
Meanwhile, military exercises conducted by the Comoran army at the weekend near Moroni sparked initial rumours that the government was planning to redeploy troops to Anjouan. About 150 soldiers sent to the island in July during demonstrations were withdrawn to Grande Comore last week, but the troops on departure footing on Tuesday were under the command of a new chief of general staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Hassan Harouna, known as a tough officer.