Gambiaj.com – (FREETOWN, Sierra Leone) – The government of Sierra Leone on Friday announced the release of its soldiers and police officers who were arrested earlier this week by Guinean forces, following several days of heightened tensions between the two neighboring countries over alleged military incursions along their shared border.
Confirmation of the release came from Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Information in a statement posted on social media after the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Alhaji Timothy Kabba, travelled to Conakry on Friday morning for high-level discussions.
“Diplomacy is the key. All security personnel arrested by the Guinean authorities have been handed over safely to Sierra Leone,” the ministry said in its official message.
Dispute Over Border Construction
The tensions stemmed from an incident on Monday, February 23, in the locality of Kalieyereh in Sierra Leone’s Kalaba district. According to Freetown, the detained soldiers and police officers had been tasked with constructing a border post within Sierra Leonean territory.
However, authorities in Guinea alleged that the Sierra Leonean personnel had crossed into Guinean territory and attempted to raise their national flag there, a claim firmly rejected by Freetown. Sierra Leone maintained that its personnel were operating within national borders and accused Guinean troops of crossing into its territory to carry out the arrests.
The exchange of accusations triggered sharp diplomatic tensions between the two Mano River Union neighbors, raising concerns about stability along their porous and historically sensitive frontier.
Call for Calm and Joint Commission
Guinea’s Prime Minister, Amadou Oury Bah, welcomed the handling of the situation and stressed the importance of avoiding escalation.
“There is no need to enter into a conflict situation. It is neither in our interest nor in that of Sierra Leone,” he said in remarks to RFI.
With the detained personnel now released, tensions between Freetown and Conakry are expected to ease.
The Guinean government has also announced the establishment of a joint commission between the two countries tasked with examining all issues relating to the demarcation of their common border.
The latest incident is not the first dispute over the frontier. In April last year, Sierra Leone accused Guinea of an incursion into the village of Yenga in the country’s northeast.
The matter prompted the intervention of the regional bloc Economic Community of West African States, which deployed a mission in September in an effort to help defuse tensions.
The creation of a joint commission is widely seen as a diplomatic step aimed at preventing future confrontations and clarifying longstanding ambiguities surrounding the boundary line between the two states.
