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War and PeaceCHADChadian forces claim they control most of the northern half of Equateur province. A Chadian military official told AFP at the weekend that the towns of Lisala and Bumba were in their hands, and the northern part of the province as far as the Congo river. The official claimed that 121 Ugandan and Rwandans had been taken prisoner and would be "soon" handed over to ICRC. Independent analysts estimate Chad has some 2,000 troops in northern DRC. Meanwhile, Uganda's Minister of Defence Stephen Kavuma has denied Chad is holding Ugandan POWs. He said the Ugandan army was not operating in the northern sector, state radio reported yesterdayCONGO-BRAZZAVILLEGovernment troops have launched a new offensive against militia forces of ex-premier Bernard Kolelas to the west of Brazzaville, AFP quoted sources close to the government as saying today. Forces backing President Denis Sassou-Nguesso attacked positions held by the Ninja rebels in the Ngoma Tse-Tse region, some 15 km west of the capital. Meanwhile, "sporadic" fighting continued in Dolisie, the country's third largest town, 300 km west of Brazzaville. Cocoye militia backing former president Pascal Lissouba attacked the city last week.DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGOSouth African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo yesterday (Monday) reaffirmed his country's backing for Zambia's efforts at seeking a negotiated solution to the crisis in the DRC. In a press statement, Nzo said: "We remain committed to the need for all-inclusive negotiations as the only recipe for sustainable peace in that country. Our involvement here must not be seen as a series of high-profile events, but rather as part of a drawn-out process." His remarks followed five days of talks in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, which ended at the weekend. Officials told IRIN the talks involving representatives of the foreign and defence ministries of Angola, Zambia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Namibia, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, as well as the UN, the OAU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), had ended inconclusively. But the talks, aimed at "establishing the modalities of a ceasefire" would resume "within weeks" and would be followed, as planned, by a summit of regional leaders, the officials said.ERITREA-ETHIOPIAFive people were killed in an Ethiopian bombing raid at a displaced people's camp at Lailai Deder in Eritrea, eye witnesses told IRIN today (Tuesday). An international journalist who was at the scene earlier today told IRIN that the raids started at 4.50 a.m., and were followed by another attack by Ethiopian aircraft at about 9 a.m.. Local people told journalists the displaced persons, living in tents with some support from humanitarian agencies, had been deported last June from northern Ethiopia. Lailai Deda is about 40 km from the front line.Both sides in the ongoing Ethiopia-Eritrea border war have hundreds of thousands of people already displaced or recently repatriated thanks to the conflict. Humanitarian agencies acknowledge that further displacement will happen if the conflict spreads to a wider area. A notional 40 km strip either side of the border is home to about one million people. GUINEA BISSAUGuinean and Senegalese troops backing beleaguered President Joao Bernardo Vieira will start leaving Guinea Bissau on 7 February, news reports. The agreement came in a meeting of the Joint Military Commission comprising the loyalists and anti-Vieira forces as well as representatives of the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG; the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, saidThe commission decided 1,200 of the estimated 3,000 Guinean and Senegalese would go first and the remainder will have left by 28 February. As soon as the pullout begins, Lusa said, a "minimal joint military force" would be set up and the disarmament of loyalist and anti-government troops would get underway. The withdrawal of the Guineans and Senegalese and the arrival of ECOMOG were conditions set by the self-styled Military Junta, for the functioning of a government of national unity formed nearly one month ago. The withdrawals were also part of a peace pact signed in November 1998 by the rivals. SIERRA LEONEThere appears to be widespread support for President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's offer to hold talks with Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and to allow them to discuss with their jailed leader Foday Sankoh. NGO organisations such as Refugees International and the Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL), issued statements urging the international community to back Kabbah's attempt to hold a dialogue which they said was "the only way to achieve peace in Sierra Leone". The UN Special Representative for Sierra Leone, Francis Okello, described Kabbah's initiative as a "positive step" and it was now important for the rebels to "respond positively".According to AFP, Togo has offered to host talks between the Sierra Leone government and rebels. Foreign Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh said Togo, as current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), "has a responsibility to seek peace in Sierra Leone".
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