SENEGAL: Rebels kill two in bus attack

Follow @{0}Nairobi, 29 July 1999 (IRIN) - Senegalese separatist guerrillas, suspected to be renegade members of the Mouvement des forces democratique de Casamance, attacked a bus on Wednesday in Samine, near Senegal's border with Guinea Bissau, killing two people and wounding nine, news reports and NGO sources said.

"This attack was probably by uncontrolled elements," Alieu Tine, of the Senegalese human rights body, RADDHO, told IRIN on Thursday.

He described the attack as an isolated incident, but said two or three more incidents could break the lull in fighting between the army and the MFDC.

Since the attack, troops have launched a sweep of Samine, in Senegal's southern area of Casamance.

This is the first reported attack by any element of the splintered guerrilla force since talks in The Gambia in June and July to sort out internal differences before proposed peace talks with the government in Dakar.

Radical elements within the MFDC, those of the southern front led by Salif Sadio, prefer to continue the war of independence. Those of the northern front, commanded by Sidi Badji, and the overall leader of the MDFC, Father Diamacoune Senghor, prefer peace talks with the government in Dakar.