KNOW ABOUT RSLAF
(EPISODE 17)
28th August, 2025.
- A twelve-man delegation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is visiting Sierra Leone on a fact-finding mission on the disputed border village of Yenga.
- On Tuesday, 26th August, 2025, the delegation paid a courtesy visit on the Deputy Minister of Defence, Colonel Muana Brima Massaquoi (Retired). Briefing the Deputy Minister, the ECOWAS Resident Representative in Sierra Leone, Ambassador John Azumah, said that the ECOWAS Assessment Mission was visiting the country so as “to gather information about the disputed border area between the Republics of Sierra Leone and Guinea”.
III. “The work that the Team is going to do is purely technical, and it is going to be impartial”, Ambassador Azumah emphasized.
- The ECOWAS Resident Representative said that during the visit, the Team would engage different stakeholders as well as visit the disputed border village in order to obtain substantial facts that will assist in resolving the dispute. The ECOWAS Resident Representative assured that at the end of the fact-finding mission, the Team would proffer recommendations that will go a long way to resolving the dispute and bring lasting peace to the two neighbors.
- Welcoming the ECOWAS Assessment Mission, the Deputy Minister of Defence, Colonel Muana Brima Massaquoi (Retired), expressed Government’s appreciation over ECOWAS swift response to the dispute. He assured the delegation that Sierra Leone was totally committed to supporting the diplomatic approach to resolve the dispute.
- “Sierra Leone and Guinea are the same country, in spite of the imaginary boundary. Hence, taking a different approach will cause a serious humanitarian crisis for the peoples of both countries”, the Deputy Defence Minister added.
VII. In his remarks, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major General Kemoh Tewoh Sesay, who currently acts as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), gave a brief overview of Guinea’s occupation of Sierra Leone’s border village. Major General Sesay said that even the indigenes of Yenga had no doubts that Yenga was part of Sierra Leone and they, themselves, were citizens of Sierra Leone.
VIII. Yenga is a border village located in the Kissi Teng Chiefdom, Kailahun District in Eastern Sierra Leone. The Village is situated on a hill above the south side of the confluence of the Mafissia River and the Makona or Moa River. The river forms the boundary between the two neighboring countries.
- Shortly after Sierra Leone’s bloody Civil War broke out on 23rd March, 1991, Guinea was the first country to send her troops to support RSLAF so as to halt and repel the rapidly advancing Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels led by Corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh and their National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) allies, led by Charles Ghankay Taylor.
- Nevertheless, Guinea’s occupation of Yenga occurred in 1998, after the RUF rebels had issued several threats to invade the neighboring country in retaliation to Guinea’s robust military support to RSLAF.
- Hence, with the consent of the Government of Sierra Leone, Guinea deployed her troops at Yenga so as to ward off any incursion that might be orchestrated by Corporal Sankoh’s RUF rebels.
XII. However, after the decade long Civil War officially ended on 18th January, 2002, Guinea refused to give up the border village, and she continued to occupy it.
XIII. In its diplomatic efforts to regain Yenga, the Government of Sierra Leone signed some key agreements with Guinea.
XIV. First, in 2002, the two countries signed an agreement that Yenga would be returned to Sierra Leone as soon as Guinea border could be secured. Again, in 2005, both countries also signed another agreement that Yenga belonged to Sierra Leone. Importantly, on 27th July 2012, they further signed the Joint Declaration for the demilitarization of Yenga. As a result, in May 2013, the last batch of Guinean troops withdrew from the border village.
- However, in 2020 the Guinean troops returned to and occupied Yenga for the second time, claiming ownership of the border village.
XVI. On 28th April, this year, the Guinean troops attempted to annex other two villages, namely Sokoma and Pengubengu. However, this attempt was frustrated by RSLAF, which proactively deployed its personnel to guard and secure the said villages.
XVII. As a result, there was a standoff between the Guinean troops and the RSLAF personnel.
XVIII. The Guinean troops then fired some shots, which created apprehension and fear among the villagers.
XIX. Subsequently, there was a mass exodus and displacement of the villagers, who included the aged, women and children.
- In a quick response to the humanitarian crisis, His Excellency the President, Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio (Retired), provided humanitarian aid to all the affected villagers. A total of 400 bags of 50kg rice, 2,000 bags of 25kg rice and other relief items were freely distributed.
XXI. Additionally, in order to de-escalate the standoff, both countries immediately engaged in “very serious diplomatic talks at the highest levels”.
XXII. On Sunday, 22nd June, 2025, His Excellency the President, Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio (Retired), was elected as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of States and Governments at the 67th ECOWAS Ordinary Session held in Abuja, Nigeria.
XXIII. Since his assumption of the ECOWAS leadership, President Bio has progressively continued with the diplomatic efforts to resolve the border dispute amicably.
XXIV. Hence, on Tuesday, 5th August, 2025, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency Dr Omar Alieu Touray, paid a courtesy visit to the newly-elected ECOWAS Chairman.
XXV. During the visit, His Excellency Dr Touray assured President Bio that the ECOWAS Commission would soon implement the decision to deploy the ECOWAS Assessment Mission to Sierra Leone and Guinea as part of the ongoing efforts to resolve the Yenga Border dispute.
XXVI. Thus, the ECOWAS Assessment Mission arrived in Freetown on Monday, 25th August, 2025. Since its arrival, the delegation has held discussions with various stakeholders, including the Office of National Security (ONS), Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Internal Affairs, Planning and Economic Development etc.
XXVII. Meanwhile, the twelve-man delegation has departed Freetown for the disputed border village of Yenga in order to continue with its fact-finding mission.
XXVIII. The delegation is expected to visit Guinea on similar mission in the coming weeks.
XXIX. For information about RSLAF, please visit our Facebook page at Ministry of Defence/Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces or our Website at www.mod.gov.sl.
Yayah Brima, Esq.,
Lieutenant Colonel,
Director,
Directorate of Defence Public Relations and Information,
Defence Headquarters,
Cockerill Barracks,
Freetown.
Phone/WhatsApp:
078 452 876