BBC News Online: World: Africa

Liberia warns Guinea

Thousands of Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees detained in Guinea last weekend on charges of fuelling a rebellion, were freed on Wednesday.

Guinea hosts about 500,000 refugees who have fled conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone, but tension has increased after a series of cross-border raids into Guinea.

Tales of abuse

Meanwhile, the first Sierra Leoneans who were among the thousands rounded up and detained in neighbouring Guinea last weekend, have returned home by sea.

The first boat that left Conakry on Wednesday arrived in Freetown with more than 400 people on board.

The authorities in Freetown say they are still looking for funds to evacuate thousands more of their citizens who are crammed into their embassy compound in Conakry.

Those returning repeated stories of ill-treatment and torture in Guinea.

Haround Yankuba said he had been detained in prison for two days.

"Some of us were beaten up, we were choked up, we were in a very good number in the cell, we were denied water, we were denied even places to urinate, let alone food," he said.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch organisation accused the Guinean Government of inciting armed attacks against Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees in the country.

They released on Wednesday first hand accounts from women who say they were raped and from refugees whose homes were looted.

At least one refugee is reported to have died in detention.

Talks

Senior ministers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are expected to meet on Friday in the Malian capital, Bamako, to discuss the cross-border raids.

The meeting was called by the President of Mali, Alpha Oumar Konare, who is the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

There have been reports of reprisal attacks against Guineans in Freetown, and troops surrounded the Guinean embassy in the Liberian capital Monrovia earlier in the week after threats on Guinean citizens there.