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 | Thursday, May 04, 2000, updated at 11:28(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Seven UN Peacekeepers Killed in S. LeoneThe U.N. peacekeeping force surrounded former Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh's home in capital Freetown after seven of their colleagues were killed by Sankoh's followers, reports reaching Lagos said on Wednesday.An officer of the UN peacekeeping force stationed there said that Sankoh was "under the protection of UN troops". The seven soldiers were killed and three others wounded by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) headed by Sankoh. They were among the 49 U.N. soldiers and some civilian personnel taken hostage by the RUF fighters in three separate incidents on Tuesday. It is the first time U.N. peacekeepers have been killed in Sierra Leone since they were deployed in the west African country in April to enforce a peace deal signed by the warring parties in mid-1999. The U.N. mission in Sierra Leone, while condemning the killing, said "many others are not traceable due to the fluid situation". In a statement in Paris earlier, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his "outrage at the continuing deliberate attacks on United Nations personnel in Sierra Leone". Annan said Sankoh was to blame for the attacks and that he should be held accountable.
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