By Bridget Johnson, your guide to Journalism

Continuing the Year of Breakaway Territories, the 263-sqaure-mile island of Anjouan — the triangular-shaped part of Comoros on the map (courtesy: U.S. State Department) here — may be the site of a war within just days.

A bit of background first: The Mozambique Channel islands, once annexed by the French, became the independent Union of Comoros in 1975. Anjouan declared independence from Comoros (the world’s leading producer of perfume ingredient ylang-ylang) in 1997, but rejoined as an autonomous republic in 2002. Separatist leader Mohamed Bacar (the island is Sunni Muslim) became president. His term expired in April 2007, after which he — in defiance of both the Union of Comoros and the African Union — printed his own ballots and held his own election where he “won” 90 percent of the vote. The AU imposed punitive sanctions and a naval blockade on Anjouan, but Bacar — who has refused new elections, French exile, or other compromise — has stubbornly refused to give in.

AU Special Envoy Mourad Taiati told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that “The AU has been dealing with the Anjouan crisis for ten years now. Today, everyone has taken our position, (Bacar) is isolated and the military operation is an accomplished fact.”

More from AFP:

“A final planning meeting will be held on March 8 in Dar-es-Salaam to discuss the assembling of troops or logistics support from Tanzania, Senegal, Sudan and Libya under the AU banner.


French transport will also be used to boost some 200 Tanzanian AU soldiers already in the Comoros since mid-2007.


‘The African (Union) troops who are there to support the Comoros army should arrive within the next few days,’ Taiati said.


Taiati also told of mounting concern over human rights violations on Anjouan, with ‘thousands’ having fled the island.


According to Comoros government figures, 2,500 of the 260,000 Anjouan population have landed on the main island alone.


‘We are talking about thousands fleeing the politics of repression and torture inflicted by Bacar’s illegal regime,’ Taiati said.”