Over 2,600 Sierra Leonean Combatants SurrenderThe United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) has disclosed that Some 2,613 rebels and pro- government militiamen in Sierra Leone had handed in their weapons since the disarmament process began on May 18, according to reports reaching here on Saturday from Freetown.In the northern areas of Kambia and Port Loko, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) had 1,037 disarmed fighters, 162 of them children. The pro-government Civil Defense Forces (CDF) militia had 1,576 disarmed fighters, among them 61 children, a senior official of UNAMSIL was quoted as saying. Similar operations will be conducted at the district level in other parts of the country two days after the deadline for disarmament expires on May 28, the official added. The demobilization followed a cease-fire agreement in Freetown on May 15 between the RUF and the CDF as a result of which an estimated 25,000 RUF and CDF combatants are expected to disarm in the next six months. Meanwhile, the RUF Saturday also announced that it will return all weapons and war materiel seized from United Nations and west African peacekeeping troops. The weapons were seized from the UNAMSIL and from ECOMOG, the peace monitoring force of the Economic Community of West African States, during the RUF's war against the governments since 1991. The RUF announcement came shortly after the RUF rebels handed over 591 children to the UNAMSIL at their northern headquarters in Makeni, 138 kilometers northeast of Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone. The peace process in the war-torn country has been accelerated in recent weeks with the Freetown agreement. Although there have been violations of the cease-fire, the U.N. has said the agreement has not gone off track. |
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