Annan dispatches envoy to help peace efforts between Gambia, Guinea-Bissau

Aiming to calm mounting tensions between Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has dispatched an envoy to the region to help consolidate the recent resumption of peaceful cooperation between the two countries, a UN spokesman announced today.

Mr. Annan's Special Envoy, Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, will explore with President Al Hadji Yahya Jammeh of Gambia and President Koumba Yala of Guinea-Bissau ways in which their two Governments could implement "speedily and fully" the commitments they agreed to last month in Kanilai, Gambia, following a UN-facilitated bilateral meeting.

"Mr. Gbeho will seek to build on the momentum also created by the reconciliation meeting held by the two Heads of State, under the auspices of the Secretary-General, in the margins of the recent OAU summit in Durban," said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard.

The Secretary-General has directed Ambassador Gbeho to travel to Addis Ababa and Abuja to brief the interim chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Amara Essy, as well as Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), on UN efforts to promote the consolidation of peaceful relations between Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.

The Special Envoy will then travel to Dakar to brief the ECOWAS Chairman, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal.