OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Thursday 9.00pm
A MASSIVE build-up of rebel forces has been reported along the Sierra Leone border. General Abu Ahmadu, commander of the west African peacekeeping force, Ecomog, in Sierra Leone, told a security briefing in Freetown that the build-up was a flow-on from events taking place in Liberia, where President Charles Taylor has vowed to arrest rival warlord Rooseveld Johnson for treason.
Johnson is holed up in the United States embassy in Monrovia, but there have been clashes between militias on both sides, with reported casualties of 33 dead so far.
”We are watching the situation, particularly at the Mano bridge linking the two countries,” General Ahmadu said, ”but there should not be too much of an alarm over this.”
Asked if the border is now closed, he said, ”not at all. Our information is that it is still open.”
Ahmadu said that in the past week the rebels had intensified their attacks on Ecomog positions, particularly in Kono and Kabala, in the north of the country. He said rebel forces attacked on September 18, but were repelled with 48 of them killed and four captured. An attack at Kidu on September 21 was also repelled, with 13 killed and 15 wounded.
Some 20000 refugees are reported to have trekked east to escape the intensified fighting.