Liberia Says It Has Been Attacked By Guinea
Sept 25, 2000

The Liberian Government said over the weekend that Zorzor District has been shelled by Guinean forces in an attempt to provoke Liberia. A statement issued by the Ministry of Information said, "the Liberian government has expressed its outrage at last Friday's early morning shelling of Zorzor district, Lofa County, by Guinean forces from across the Guinean border town of Korymeh."

According to reports, residents of Zorzor and displaced people from the Voinjama area who sought refuge in Zorzor are fleeing to the Salayea area.

Since the July incursion, Liberia has being accusing Guinea of supporting Liberian dissidents fighting the Government in Lofa County. There have been several cross border attacks on villages in Guinea by armed men, with the attack on Macenta being the most recent attack. In that attack, Mensah Kpognon of Togo, head of the Macenta center of the UNHCR, was killed and his home burned. Another UNHCR worker, Sapeu Laurence Djeya of Ivory Coast, was abducted by the armed men believed to have entered Guinea from Liberia. Several civilians and military personnel were killed by the attackers.

The last time Guinea shelled rebel position was in 1996 when armed men believed to be members of the ULIMO-K and NPFL rebels launched cross border attacks on Guinea in 1996 during the Liberian civil.

There has been no independent confirmation of the attack on Zorzor. But sources knowledgeable of the area feel that the attack on Zorzor might have been the work of the LURD dissidents fighting Government forces in northern Lofa.