Several people believed to be Guineans, who are traveling from Monrovia and other parts of Liberia, are currently stranded at the Liberia-Guinea Border in Ganta City, Nimba County.
The travelers, mostly women and children, were seen wandering about the Ganta-Guinea border awaiting signal to cross into Guinea.
A young woman who casually spoke with a Nimba TV reporter,said she does not know why they were being held at the border.
Another man who spoke on condition of anonymity said, they were told to wait at the border until the flooding on the Guinean side subsides.
“We came here two days ago and we were told that water is on the other side of the border so we should wait. While we were here, we heard about the overthrowing of the President of Guinea so they closed the border.
They told us that it will be opened by 11 today, but it already passed 11 and we are still here”, he narrated.
An immigration officer at the Ganta Border who spoke unofficially to Nimba TV disclosed that, there has been flooding in neighboring Guinea for the past days.
He said the travelers were awaiting the water level to subside when news of the dethronement of Guinea’s President Alpha Condé broke out.
He indicated that the Liberian side of the border was still opened, but Guinean authorities shut their border due to the current state of affairs in that West African country.
Guinea is currently facing internal crisis following the ousting of President Alpha Condé, the Country’s President by members of an elite military unit, the Special Forces Group headed by Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya.
The United Nations, African Union and regional group ECOWAS have condemned the coup and called for a return to civilian rule.
In spite of these condemnations, the coup leader has said a “new Union Government” would be formed in a week, though he didn’t state the exact day this will happen.
A nationwide curfew has reportedly been imposed in Guinea. It is still unclear when those travelers at the border will be allowed entry into Guinea.
Guinea’s coup is the fourth West Africa has witnessed since August 2020. There have been two military take overs in Mali and a failed attempt in Niger.
