/ 6 October 1999

S LEONE CABINET WITHIN WEEK

SIERRA LEONE’s President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah will announce within a week a new cabinet which will include former rebels who waged a nine-year insurgency against him and previous governments, Minister for Presidential Affairs Momodu Koroma said Tuesday. Kabbah planned talks Tuesday and Wednesday with ex-rebel leader Foday Sankoh, who returned to the capital at the weekend three months after signing an historic peace deal in Lome. Koroma said the two former foes will discuss the new cabinet and talk about ways of disarming some 45000 ex-fighters in Sierra Leone’s bush. “We are feeling positive about how things are proceeding,” said the minister, referring to cooperation with Sankoh and his wartime ally, Johnny Paul Koroma, head of a junta that seized power from Kabbah in May 1997 and was ousted by Nigerian-led ECOMOG intervention troops nine months later.