CASUALTY figures in the Sierra Leonean capital rose dramatically on Wednesday as mortar fire was heard on the western edge of the Freetown peninsula. This comes a day after the Nigerian-led intervention force warned it would launch an offensive against the rebels. In the first official death toll since fighting broke out in Freetown on January 6, authorities said on Wednesday that 2768 bodies had been collected around the city by January 23. Hospital sources say the death toll is much higher than 3000.
WIFE KILLER ‘WANTED PEACE’
FORMER security policeman Michael Bellingan on Tuesday recounted to the amnesty committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission how he bludgeoned his wife with a wheel spanner and strangled her with her hairdryer cord in 1991. This he did to prevent her leaking information about the police, and destabilising the peace process, he claimed. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence for the murder.
BBC BROADCASTS REBEL VIEW
THE BBC has gone part way to meeting the demands of rebels in Sierra Leone holding a Spanish journalist.Javier Espinosa of the daily El Mundo was detained by the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front near Freetown on Monday, along with Patrick Saint Paul of France’s Le Figaro.The rebels freed Saint Paul to ensure their demands were publicised.A regular African news bulletin broadcast on Tuesday said, “The freed journalist, Patrick Saint-Paul, told the BBC he had been instructed by the rebels to tell the world that they were not responsible for [recent atrocities].”