By Alie Sonta Kamara
A one-week-long meeting of the Third Joint Technical Commission for the Reaffirmation of the Sierra Leone and Guinea Border held in Kailahun was to forge a clear resolution to the long border dispute between Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The presentation of documents was the general objective of the meeting aiming to clarify the land and maritime border limits of the two countries.
The documents collected from the two countries were sorted and categorized into three thematic headlines: legal, administrative, and cartographic, as unanimously agreed by both countries. The process was supported by the German Cooperation through GIZ as part of the implementation of the African Union Border Program (AUBP).
However, reports pouring in from Yenga state that Guinean soldiers, well armed, are asking Sierra Leoneans to vacate the border town. Reasons for this have not been established.
Social media footage and photos showed people in distress as they carried what they could take to leave their homes under stern order.
At the Kailahun meeting weeks ago, both countries recommended holding the fourth meeting of the Joint Technical Commission for the reaffirmation of the Sierra Leone and Guinea Border before the end of the first half of 2025 in Guinea.
The row over the ownership of Yenga started after Sierra Leone’s civil war in 2002, when Yenga was a base for Guinean troops who served among foreign intervention forces in the eleven-year civil war.
In July 2012, Sierra Leone and Guinea declared the demilitarization of the Yenga area. The large majority of the inhabitants of Yenga are members of the Kissi ethnic group.
As the situation worsens by the hour, Sierra Leonean authorities are being called upon to recommence speedy diplomatic talks over the prevailing circumstances.
