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Guinea-Bissau: Capital Calm as Peacekeeping Forces Plan Deployment
Bissau, Feb. 5 (Lusa) - The war-scarred capital of Guinea-Bissau awakened to calm Friday, after its first night without gunbattles or shelling this week.
If the cease-fire agreed Wednesday between loyalist and rebel military forces continues to hold, the Togolese chief of West African peacekeeping forces was expected to contact the hostile factions to detail front-line deployment of his 400-strong contingent.
Diplomatic sources told Lusa a third group of peacekeepers was expected to arrive from Gambia by air later Friday, bringing the force, known by the acronym Ecomog, to around 600 men.
On Thursday the rebel Military Junta, which advanced into Bissau during the most recent fighting, announced it would only permit the local Red Cross to cross its lines to gather the bodies of loyalist troops killed since combat erupted Sunday.
It also demanded that national and foreign journalists accompany the Red Cross teams.
The clinical director of Bissau's main hospital, Dr. Camilo Pereira, told Lusa Thursday that 300 wounded, including 47 children, were being treated with depleted medical supplies.
The hospital had also received 40 bodies of persons killed in the fighting.