OWN CORRESPONDENT, | day 11.00m.
SIERRA Leonean rebels launched an attack some 30km from the capital on Tuesday, the commander of the Nigerian-led intervention force, Ecomog, reported.
General Timothy Shelpidi said the attack took place in Waterloo, which lies at a strategic junction linking the Freetown peninsula to the country’s interior.
In a radio broadcast, Shelpidi said Ecomog “is in control of the situation and is presently engaged in seeking and destroying the rebels wherever they are.”
It was unclear whether there were any casualties, or whether Ecomog troops had succeeded in routing the rebels from the area.
Many civilians have abandoned their homes in the last week following recent attacks near Okra Hills, some 30km further north.
Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front, along with members of an ousted junta, were routed from the capital in February by Ecomog troops. A month later the civilian government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, which had spent nine months in exile, was reinstated. — AFP