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| - Equatorial Guinea has suspended work on the construction of a wall along its border with Cameroon, according to the country's defence minister. The country has accused Equatorial Guinea of building a wall and encroaching on its territory since July 2019, which Malabo has denied. Tensions between the two central African countries were recently rekindled when Cameroonian media reported in June that Equatorial Guinea was building watchtowers along the border. On the sidelines of a meeting over the border dispute with his Equatorial Guinean counterpart in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde late Tuesday, Defence Minister Beti Assomo welcomed "reports of the suspension of these works". Equatorial Guinea's Defence Minister Leandro Bakale did not mention the wall in his statement, but later told the press: "We can emphatically say that conciliation is guaranteed." "There is no work at the moment," a member of the Equatorial Guinean delegation in Yaounde told AFP. "We have not built a wall." But the same source acknowledged "operations to locate the limits of the border". "The commitment to suspend the construction of this wall was made by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea," a Cameroonian official, who requested anonymity, told AFP. Nguema, who has ruled with an iron fist for four decades, told Cameroon's President Paul Biya "his country planned to build a wall to counter illegal migration but that he had decided to suspend it", the official said. Equatorial Guinea is particularly watchful about the border. It was here, in December 2017, that some 30 foreign mercenaries from Chad, the Central African Republic and Sudan were arrested in what Equatorial Guinea says was a foiled coup attempt. There have long been tensions along this frontier, where Equatorial Guinea has accused Cameroon of letting West Africans enter its territory illegally. Equatorial Guinea is awash with oil, but mired in poverty and a reputation for corruption. A Cameroonian army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP in August 2019 that Equatorial Guinean soldiers had crossed the Ntem river -- that forms a natural border between the two countries -- and erected milestones in the town of Kye-Ossi on the Cameroonian side. Equatorial Guinean residents along the border contacted by AFP noted that construction of a wall had been started in the summer of 2019, but now claim that the work stopped several months ago and never resumed. rek-sam/erc/jj
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