A 12 member ECOWAS team is currently in Sierra Leone for a fact-finding mission about the disputed border village of Yenga and will visit there for a firsthand view. GoSL is committed to pursuing a diplomatic resolution.
However , when the Minister of Internal Affairs Morie Lengor on August 29, 2025, joined the ECOWAS fact-finding team to visit Yengeh; a disputed border occupied by the Guinean military. the team was refused entrance to the village by the current occupants, claiming that they have no knowledge of ECOWA’s visit.
They ended their Trip at Pegobegu where sierra Leone has control since residents in Yengeh fleed some months ago.
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Yenga Border Standoff – ECOWAS Delegation Turned Back
On August 29, 2025, a high-powered ECOWAS fact-finding mission led by Sierra Leone’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Morie Lengor, set out to visit Yenga — the border town long claimed by Sierra Leone but now occupied by Guinean forces.
The mission never reached its destination. At the Yenga crossing point, Guinean soldiers stopped the delegation, insisting they had no official communication about any ECOWAS visit. Left with no option, the team ended their journey at Pegobegu, a Sierra Leonean village firmly under Freetown’s control, after Yenga residents fled months ago due to the standoff.
The failed visit has sparked tough questions at home and abroad. As current ECOWAS Chairman, President Julius Maada Bio was the architect of this mission. But critics argue that without proper diplomatic engagement with Conakry, the trip was doomed to fail. If the goal was to resolve the Yenga dispute, why were the right diplomatic channels not used first?
For many Sierra Leoneans, the optics suggest this was less about finding a solution — and more about political grandstanding. Meanwhile, the people of Yenga remain displaced, caught in the middle of a dispute that shows no sign of ending.
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