OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Tuesday 8.00pm.
KAMJOR traditional fighters in Sierra leone ambushed rebel forces in the densely forested north-east of the country on Monday, killing 52 and wounding an unknown number.
The Kamajors, who are assisting the Sierra Leone government to defeat the remnants of the fomer junta and its allies the Revolutionary United Front, laid a trap late Monday on a road near Mandekelema village about 50km from the Liberian border, Kamajor staff officer Francis Silikie said.
At least one Kamajor was killed and three others were missing in the gun-battle and hand-to-hand fighting that ensued. An unknown number of rebels drowned while trying to retreat across a small river, Silikie said.
Several rebels wearing tattered civilian clothes were taken prisoner in Tuesday’s battle and several earlier skirmishes and were paraded before journalists by Kamajor officers.
“These are the lucky ones,” said Silikie. “Some of the rebel commanders killed have not been identified because they were completely mutilated by fighters for our just cause.”
The rebels, who roam the forests of eastern and northern Sierra Leone, are widely feared in the interior as a result of mass killings, rapes and mutilations of unarmed civilians.
The Kamajors, a volunteer society of traditional hunters and fighters from several ethnic groups, have declared a “patriotic war” against the rebels.
Although the government has said it cannot afford to pay them, the Kamajors are widely popular in many communities which often give food, toll fees and hunting weapons to the fighters in return for protection from rebels.
The fighters believe that by dressing in women’s clothing and wearing garlands of fetishes blessed by their society leaders they are made impervious to enemy bullets.