RUF, ECOMOG commanders meet in the bush

Military commanders from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and ECOMOG met on Tuesday some 40 km from Freetown, ECOMOG spokesman Lt-Col Chris Olukulade told IRIN on Wednesday. Olukulade said the rebels had sent a boy soldier aged about seven with a message to one of the ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group) field commanders in the area, Colonel Ralph Apata, saying the insurgents wanted to surrender and "were tired of being in the bush". However when the two sides came face to face, Olukulade said, they "wanted to play to the gallery of journalists and observers present" and instead of surrendering, discussed the exchange of prisoners of war and other issues relating to the peace process. They also made a public commitment to respect the ceasefire, which officially began on Monday, and asked UN military observers, also present at the meeting, to tell aid agencies that civilians in the areas they controlled needed urgent assistance. The meeting between field commanders involved Apata, one of the senior Nigerian officers leading the ECOMOG force supporting Sierra Leone's government, and rebel commander George Johnson, also known as 'Junior Lion' or Brigadier Ibrahim Ceesay, Olukulade said. It took place on the main east-west highway, which has been the scene of fierce fighting during the conflict. WFP appeals for safe access Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Wednesday for "safe and unimpeded access by humanitarian organisations to all people in need of food and other aid". In a press release, WFP said that an estimated 2.6 million people, more than half the population, were beyond the reach of any relief intervention and that it hoped a pledge made in the ceasefire agreement to allow access would be implemented quickly by all parties.