OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Wednesday 3.00PM.
NIGERIA’s new military leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, has proposed sending the Nigerian-led Ecomog intervention force to intervene in the conflict in Guinea-Bissau.
Abubakar said that following a request for intervention from the government of Guinea-Bissau, he asked military chiefs involved in the West African Ecomog military force to draw up contingency plans in case of intervention.
Fighting began in Guinea-Bissau on June 7, with a coup attempt in the capital, Bissau, by ousted former army chief of staff Brigadier Ansumane Mane, who accuses President Joao Bernardo Vieira of corruption and says he should resign. The fighting later spread throughout the former Portuguese colony.
On Tuesday, radio news reports said Mane’s forces had accused government forces of violating a weekend ceasefire agreement.
In Abuja on Tuesday, Abubakar said he will soon “be able to tell you exactly the number of countries that have pledged to contribute troops” to an intervention force for Guinea-Bissau.