BBC News Online: World: Africa

Aid staff flee Guinea fighting

They said they saw the severed heads of suspected rebels displayed on stakes around the town of Guekedou after it was recaptured by the Guinea army.

The aid workers were withdrawn to the safer southern town of Kissidougou. Some 200,000 refugees, most of whom have fled wars in neighbouring countries, are now without humanitarian assistance.

The aid workers left after they were told by the Guinea army that there would be military operations against rebels in the area for several more days.

The BBC's West Africa correspondent, Mark Doyle, describes the situation as a catastrophe.

He says the rebels appear to be a mixture of Guinean dissidents and mercenaries recruited in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Guinea says the rebels are backed by the Liberian Government, but Liberia denies this.

A regional peace-keeping force of some 1,600 troops is due to begin policing the area soon, but the task of securing Guinea's long and porous jungle borders is expected to be extremely difficult.