By *Chernor Mohamadu Jalloh

If there’s a single village in West Africa that perfectly illustrates how unresolved history can haunt the present, it’s Yenga. A modest farming community nestled on the banks of the Makona River, Yenga has, for over two decades now, stood at the uneasy crossroads of fraternal solidarity and festering distrust between Sierra Leone and Guinea.

This isn’t just about land anymore—if it ever truly was. It’s about lives in limbo, families divided by uncertainty, and two governments seemingly stuck in a déjà vu of diplomatic dance.

And now, tensions have flared again.

Recent reports from local chiefs and border dwellers allege that Guinean security personnel have resumed patrols and constructed temporary encampments on the Sierra Leonean side of the border. The accusation, if confirmed, marks a sharp deviation from past agreements and risks unraveling years of fragile progress.

Let’s be honest. This feels like watching an old play—same cast, same script, just a different year.

Remember: the Guinean army first entered Yenga in 2001 to help Sierra Leone repel the Revolutionary United Front. Their support was timely and commendable. But two decades and at least three formal agreements later (2002, 2005, and 2012), we are still talking about troop presence, still debating maps, and still pretending that the people of Yenga can build a future in perpetual ambiguity.

The problem isn’t lack of talking. It’s lack of action. Presidents from both countries, past and present—including President Julius Maada Bio and Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya—have repeatedly expressed public commitments to resolve the issue. Yet, the people in Yenga continue to live as if sovereignty is a theory debated in far-off capitals, not a reality that governs their lives.

Here’s the truth: when political will stalls, power vacuums are filled by tension, rumor, and occasionally, armed presence. Border disputes don’t resolve themselves. They fester.

Let’s move beyond diplomacy-as-performance. Real leadership demands bold, specific action. Here’s what that could look like:

1. Resuscitate and Empower the Joint Border Taskforce
   Past agreements cannot remain ink on paper. A standing Joint Border Implementation Taskforce—composed of military, civil, and community actors—must be reactivated immediately. Let them monitor compliance, document violations, and submit monthly briefings to ECOWAS and the African Union. This is not radical. It’s overdue.
2. Deploy a Neutral Regional Peace Mission
   ECOWAS has the muscle and the mandate. If we can send observers to elections, why not to border flashpoints? A joint Mano River Union/ECOWAS fact-finding mission should visit Yenga immediately, gather evidence, and mediate face-to-face talks between Freetown and Conakry. Let’s de-escalate before an avoidable confrontation steals the headlines.
3. Involve the People—Seriously This Time
   Nobody understands the pain and potential of Yenga more than its people. Create a Yenga Community Peace Forum with chiefs, women, youth, and religious leaders from both sides. Let them tell us what peace looks like—not as a diplomatic abstraction but as a lived experience. Because here’s the thing: peace without participation is performative.
4. Turn Yenga into a Pilot Zone for Cross-Border Prosperity
   Why not flip the script? Instead of arguing over whose it is, why not turn Yenga into a joint economic zone? Think: shared markets, cooperative farming, eco-tourism, and solar-powered agribusiness hubs. With support from ECOWAS and the African Development Bank, Yenga could become a model of integration, not isolation. Guinea and Sierra Leone could both claim victory—not over land, but over poverty.
5. Keep International Arbitration on the Table
   Nobody wants to drag this into the Hague. But sometimes, neutral arbitration is the cleanest path to closure. The International Court of Justice can offer a final verdict—provided both parties agree to abide by it and cool the nationalist rhetoric in the meantime.

Yenga is not just a dot on the map. It’s a litmus test for what kind of neighbors Guinea and Sierra Leone want to be. Do we lean into shared history and brotherhood, or do we retreat into militarized suspicion and performative nationalism?

It’s also a test of Pan-African diplomacy. We cannot continue to demand respect globally if we can’t resolve disputes with our own kin. African problems deserve African solutions—but they also deserve African urgency.

The longer we wait, the harder it gets. Children are growing up in Yenga without knowing if they’re Sierra Leonean or Guinean. Farmers don’t know whom to pay taxes to. Traders can’t move goods without harassment. This is not governance. It’s purgatory.

So, President Bio, President Doumbouya—let this be the last time Yenga makes headlines for the wrong reasons. Let this be the moment you put dignity above delay. Let Yenga be remembered not as a symbol of stalemate, but as the spark that reignited a continental commitment to peace, sovereignty, and smart statecraft.

Africa is watching.

The author *Chernor Mohamadu Jalloh is
Lecturer in Governance & Public Policy, IPAM – University of Sierra Leone

Copy right –Printed in the Expo Times News on Wednesday, June 9TH, 2025 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)