S-LEONE REBELS SCRABBLE TO HAND IN ARMS

SOME 14 000 combatants in Sierra Leone’s protracted civil war have laid down their weapons under a UN-supervised disarmament programme, the UN mission in Sierra Leone said this week. Unamsil force commander Major-General Martin Luther Agwei said facilities at the key eastern diamond-rich district of Kono had been ”overstretched” at the weekend by rebels and members of a state-backed civil militia wishing to hand in their weapons. – AFP

Tuesday August 7, 2001