By Festus Poquie
Clashes between Guinean and Sierra Leonean troops on Feb. 23 have reopened a volatile chapter of territorial disputes in the Mano River Basin, and a subsequent incident involving Liberian forces has drawn the three neighbors into high-level diplomacy over contested, resource-rich borderland.
Guinea and Sierra Leone traded mutual accusations after soldiers from both countries engaged near their shared frontier a month after their presidents publicly met in Conakry.
Sixteen Sierra Leonean soldiers were detained by Guinean authorities following the Feb. 23 skirmish. They were released on Feb. 27 after negotiations led by Guinean Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah and the foreign ministers of the two states.
Tensions escalated again on March 11 when Guinean and Liberian forces exchanged warning shots near a sand-mining site close to the Makona river, a tri-border area long disputed by the three countries.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said it was “deeply concerned over the escalating tensions” and announced a technical assessment mission, urging diplomacy to prevent further deterioration.
A tripartite summit bringing together Guinea’s Mamadi Doumbouya, Sierra Leone’s Julius Maada Bio and Liberia’s Joseph Boakai was held in Conakry on March 16, and
Monrovia issued a detailed statement on March 17 reaffirming the three leaders’ commitment to restore the status quo and manage disputes through peaceful, diplomatic means.
Liberia said Guinea issued a directive to its forces to withdraw to previous positions and announced immediate measures including a suspension of sand-mining and related operations in affected border areas pending a comprehensive investigation.
Border experts and local officials say the current flare-up stems from long-standing uncertainties left by colonial-era boundary maps and the economic allure of mineral deposits.
“There is often a problem on the ground with mapping the borders resulting from colonisation,” Faya Moïse Sandouno, a lecturer and researcher at the Université Général Lansana Conté de Sonfonia in Conakry and a specialist in West African border issues told the Africa Report. Sandouno added that the Yenga area — in Guéckédou prefecture on the Guinean side and the site of recurrent disputes — is widely believed to contain diamonds and gold, heightening the stakes.
Historical ambiguities are compounded by shifting perceptions of natural markers. During earlier disputes, officials discovered that the Makona river did not correspond to the legal boundary as popularly imagined, placing territory such as Yenga inside Guinea by several hundred metres — a finding that fuelled perceptions in Sierra Leone of attempted occupation when Guinean forces established a base nearby.
Analysts warn that border friction is politically sensitive in in these West Africa nations and that cross-border community ties make demarcation fraught.
“The borders of African countries are mere lines. They are a source of problems, especially between neighbours formerly colonised by different countries,” said sociologist Alpha Amadou Bano Barry.
Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone together produce diamonds worth at least US$240 million per year and probably a lot more, according to International Alert 2006 commissioned.
That research prepared within the framework of the Diamonds for Development program focused on the role that mineral resources have played in conflict and can play for development.
Diamonds are the top export of Sierra Leone, accounting for 90 percent of the country’s export earnings. They rank third in exports of Guinea, after bauxite and gold. Diamonds are among the top four commodities exported by Liberia, alongside rubber, iron ore and gold.
Diamonds helped fuel the civil wars of Sierra Leone and Liberia during the 1990s, prompting the UN Security Council to ban diamond exports by Sierra Leone between 2000 and 2003 and impose a diamond embargo on Liberia that was lifted in 2007.
Following the outbreak of civil war in Cote d’Ivoire in 2002, the existence of diamond mines in the rebel-controlled north of the country raised international concerns that diamonds could become a contributing factor to the conflict. The Security Council banned diamond exports from Cote d’Ivoire in December 2005.
However, peace returned to Sierra Leone in 2001, Liberia’s civil war came to an end in 2003 and the conflict in Cote d’Ivoire stabilized. Guinea, which repelled an attempted invasion of its diamond producing areas in 2000 and 2001, has so far managed to avoid internal strife despite two military coups.
As symptoms of instability creep again in the region,
the countries have proposed creating a joint, permanent commission to examine and prevent border incidents, alongside diplomatic steps.
ECOWAS’s planned assessment mission and the leaders’ public recommitment to negotiate under Article 33 of the UN Charter signal a regional push to defuse the crisis. But the mix of unclear colonial-era boundaries and competing claims over sand, diamonds and gold means tensions are likely to persist until technical demarcation and resource-management arrangements are agreed.
