OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Johannesburg | Sunday 5.00pm.
WEST African leaders ended their summit meeting in Nigeria late on Saturday night after failing to to find a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Guinea Bissau.
The two-day leaders’ summit of the 16-member Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) had been dominated by the crisis in Guinea Bissau which broke out in June, pitting President Joao Bernado Vieira against rebel leader General Ansumane Mane.
Ecowas leaders said that Vieira and Mane had agreed to try to consolidate an August 26 ceasefire, and to the deployment of a ceasefire observer team, but had not concluded a final agreement. The failure comes after Nigerian ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar on Friday sent planes to collect Mane and Vieira in a bid to resolve the dispute under the auspices of the summit.
The sticking point in the negotiations was reportedly Mane’s insistence that all foreign troops in the country must leave before peace can be agreed. Senegalese President Abdou Diouf, who has sent troops into neighbouring Guinea-Bissau to support Vieira, told the summit on Friday troops.
The Guinea-Bissau talks delayed the formal resumption of the summit and several heads of state, including Diouf, Henri Konan Bedie of Ivory Coast, Lansana Conte of Guinea, Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali, started to leave before the final Saturday afternoon session kicked off. –AFP
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