AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau's army Thursday called on the southern Senegalese rebels it has been fighting for several weeks to surrender within 48 hours, saying their lives would be guaranteed.
“Surrender before it is too late. Your physical integrity will be assured,” military spokesman Captain Luis Bamboque said in a statement read on a local radio station.
“This appeal is also a warning. If you do not surrender as quickly as possible, we will be obliged to use the military resources at our disposal.”
The commander of operations against the rebels, Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Indjai, said the deadline was 48 hours.
The rebels, led by Salif Sadio, are a hard-line faction of the separatist Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MDFC), a Senegalese province bordered on the north by Gambia and on the south by Guinea-Bissau.
Indjai said Sadio's main base at Baraca Mandioca, some 800 metres (875 yards) inside Senegalese territory, was surrounded.
“I don't know if he is there, but I can tell you that if he is there and does not surrender we will be obliged to launch the final assault in 48 hours,” Indjai said.
A man giving his name as “Paul” and claiming to be an aide of Sadio contacted AFP by telephone Thursday to reject the ultimatum.
“Salif and his men prefer to die with their weapons in their hands than surrender,” he said. “It is true that we are having some problems but that will not make us put our hands up and come out like women.”
He declined to say what the problems were or comment on reports from Guinea- Bissau that they were running out of food and ammunition.
Guinea-Bissau's troops are supported by another MFDC faction which backs a peace deal with the Senegalese authorities to end a separatist rebellion that first erupted some 23 years ago.
Meanwhile a humanitarian official said the fighting risked causing a food crisis, as thousands of peasants fled their homes or were prevented from reaching markets to sell their produce.
Alfa Djalo, the Red Cross's coordinator for Guinea Bissau, said some people had begun to eat into their food reserves.
Red Cross figures showed that nearly 6,000 people were being sheltered by welfar groups in northern Guinea-Bissau or southern Senegal, while others had been taken in by relatives.
