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Hundreds of Sierra Leonean Combatants Disarmed
A total of 354 rebels and 255 pro- government militia in Sierra Leone have surrendered their weapons to the UN peacekeepers under, reports reaching here Monday from the country's capital Freetown said.
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and combatants of the Civil Defense Forces (CDF) were disarmed at several locations in the north of the country, Mohamed Yerima, spokesman for the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was quoted as saying.
They surrendered their arms to the U.N. under the supervision of the country's National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, he said.
"The weapons collected by the UNAMSIL included anti-aircraft guns, general purpose machine guns, mortar bombs and Kalashnikov assault rifles, all of which will be destroyed and later shaped into agricultural tools," Yerima noted.
The combatants of both parties who have handed over their weapons will spend a month in rehabilitation camps, the U.N. official added.
The RUF rebels and CDF combatants in northern Sierra Leone started disarmament last Friday under an agreement signed earlier last week by the warring parities and U.N. The disarmament process is due to be completed by May 28.
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