/ 2 May 2000

FIVE MORE UN SOLDIERS ADBUCTED IN SIERRA LEONE

FIVE Kenyan soldiers with the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone were abducted on Tuesday from the eastern town of Magburaka by former rebels, UN officials in Freetown said, after announcing an unspecified number of UN soldiers had been kidnapped in two other attacks. Force commander Vijay Jetley said in a statement on the other attacks that a pilot had been abducted early Tuesday in the Kailahun area and a group of soldiers taken from a base in Makeni on Monday. He threatened to use force to free the men. “If negotiations fail, military action will be taken to get the men released,” Jetley said. The increased tension comes on the day the Nigerian-led West African force known as ECOMOG officially withdraws from the country to be replaced by the UN force, MINUSIL.