G/Bissau threatens to destroy aircraft flying illegally

Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:53

As gov’t announced intensified drug war
JollofNews - Guinea-Bissau has announced plans to intensify surveillance of all its airstrips used by drug traffickers and threatened to destroy any aircraft flying over the country illegally.
The government, in a statement, also said it was making one of its airstrips "inoperative".
Located some 300km (180 miles) south of the capital, Bissau, Cufar airstrip is said to be "used for questionable activities."
Guinea Bissau, six hours away from South America by flight, is under immense pressure to counter drug trafficking as it is widely being used by drug barons in that part of the world as a center for export to Europe and North America. Its drug infiltrated status has also affected neighboring countries like Senegal and Gambia which has recently been engulfed in numerous drug cases that stemmed from the war ravaged country.
The government’s statement in Bissau, released last Tuesday, said Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior has instructed the ministers of defense and the interior to "heighten vigilance" on all of the country’s runways - a total of 24 airfields built during the colonial era.
Meanwhile, the head of the Guinea army, General Antonio Indjai, threatened to give the order to shoot down any aircraft flying over the country without permission.
"Shoot them, I will take responsibility afterwards," he reportedly told his officers.
General Indjai, who has himself been linked to drug issues, said: "What do these people want on our territory? As everyone knows Guinea-Bissau has no means, and so we are given a bad name, we are described as a country of drug traffickers. It is over now, shoot any plane that violates our airspace."
Written by Kemo Cham