Guinea-Bissau army on alert following border dispute with Senegal: source

Guinea-Bissau has put its troops on alert in the north of the country along the frontier with Senegal following a border dispute with Dakar, a military source told AFP Wednesday.

"The reason for this renewed tension is the allocation by the Senegalese authorities of plots of land along the coast between the Senegalese town in Cabrouse (in the southern Casamance region) and Tcheda, a village in Guinea-Bissau," a Bissau army officer told AFP.

Bissau claims the land, which could potentially be developed for tourism, as an integral part of its territory.

"This is an area that is located two kilometres from the border marker on our territory," the officer, who would not give his name, said.

"For a while now businessmen (...) are coming to illegally occupy the lands under the pretext that they legally acquired them in Senegal while this our land," the officer, based in the region, added.

Senegal and Guinea-Bissau share a 300-kilometer border.

Senegalese Foreign Affairs minister Madicke Niang on Wednesday waved away suggestions of a heightend tension in the border region.

"We received the information. We have excellent relations with Guinea-Bissau... we will see to it that between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau a strong and brotherly harmony prevails," he said.