Humanitarian mission to Kailahun

RUF field commanders, including Sam Bockarie, guaranteed the security of humanitarian assessment teams in RUF-held areas at a meeting on Wednesday with a mission made up of relief officials in the eastern district of Kailahun. Led by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sierra Leone, Kingsley Amaning, the mission included representatives of UN agencies, UNOMSIL and NGOs, according to a source from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). At the meeting, Bockarie - the RUF's most senior field commander - said that although RUF past relations with the humanitarian community had been strained, he was eager to welcome aid agencies to RUF-held areas. Amaning emphasised at the meeting that the relief community had "worked long and hard to maintain its impartiality in a humanitarian context", the source said. It was agreed that preparations should begin for a humanitarian assessment in Makeni, an RUF-held town in the north, as early as next week. A senior police officer in Port Loko, west of Makeni, told IRIN last week that he had heard reports of "acute shortages of food and medical supplies" in Makeni. In the peace agreement signed on Wednesday in Lome, the government and the RUF agreed to guarantee "safe and unhindered access" for all humanitarian organisations throughout Sierra Leone. UN Under-Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello welcomed the assurances for the safety of relief workers which, he said, would allow them to evaluate and address the needs of some 2.6 million civilians who have remained inaccessible since 1998. At a meeting with UN officials in Freetown on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he "encouraged a swift and vigorous humanitarian response" in Sierra Leone.