Guinea releases 16 soldiers from Sierra Leone

Guinea on Friday released 16 soldiers and police officers from neighbouring Sierra Leone who were arrested earlier this week in a border dispute, Sierra Leonean authorities said.

“All security officers arrested by the Guinean authorities have been safely handed over to Sierra Leone,” Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Information said in a Facebook post.

The release followed a visit to Guinea’s Capital, Conakry, by a delegation led by Foreign Minister Alhaji Timothy Kabba, the ministry said.

Several members of a security team, including an officer, were apprehended and transported across the border by members of Guinea’s military, Sierra Leone’s Government said.

The Guinean military said in a statement the same day that the security team had entered Guinean territory without authorisation and “set up a tent and raised their national flag” about a mile (1.6 kilometres) inside Guinea’s border. For more than two decades, the West African countries have been involved in a border dispute stemming from Sierra Leone’s civil war between 1991 and 2002.

Sierra Leone’s Government invited Guinea to help defend its eastern borders during the war, but Guinean troops did not fully withdraw afterward.

The latest incident occurred Monday in the border town of Kalieyereh in Falaba District, according to Sierra Leone’s Government, which said members of its armed forces and police were working on “making bricks for the construction of a border post and accommodation facility” at the site. Last year, the Guinean military entered a mineral-rich border town in Sierra Leone, sparking regional concerns.