Troops En Route To Guinea

West Africa's security and defense commission said on Thursday it would send a regional force of 1,676 troops to police Guinea's troubled border with its neighbors Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said the troops would come from Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal and be deployed within a month.

"They will protect the borders, facilitate the free movement of persons as well as ensure security for humanitarian agencies and refugees," ECOWAS said in a statement.

The force would have a mandate of six months in the first instance, it said. The four countries contributing troops would meet on Jan. 12 to finalize details of deployment.

The statement was issued after a meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja of army chiefs and defense ministers from the nine-member ECOWAS Security and Defense Commission. The talks began on Wednesday and lasted into the early hours of Thursday.

ECOWAS agreed at its last full summit earlier this month to field troops and observers after attacks by rebels that have killed hundreds of people in Guinea, many of them civilians, since September.

Guinea accuses Liberia of sponsoring the raids through Sierra Leone rebels and Guinean dissidents.

Liberia in turn accuses Guinea of backing dissidents who have launched raids into the north of its territory.

Aid agencies say thousands of residents near Guinea's border are on the move, fleeing rebel raids.

The statement said the meeting also approved a list of equipment for the force, including helicopters, cross country vehicles, communications gear and computers.

"Countries contributing troops are to provide the initial equipment for the deployment…while the international community will be approached to support the force," it added.

Nigeria, the regional military and economic power, has shouldered most responsibility for such missions in the past, but its elected government is under pressure at home to scale back its commitments abroad.

Guinea is a nation of 7.5 million people. Roughly the size of Oregon, it is located on Africa's Atlantic coast.