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Hundreds of Revolutionary United Front ex-combatants have been handing in weapons at the Port Loko demobilisation centre over the weekend, ECOMOG said.
Anti-aircraft guns, mortars and various categories of rifles and other small arms have been submitted to ECOMOG, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) officials since Foday
Sankoh's "sensitisation" visit on Thursday, ECOMOG
said.
A UNAMSIL source told IRIN on Monday that the sudden appearance of RUF fighters at reception and arms collection centres was due to Sankoh's visit. Some 502 RUF and 112 child soldiers disarmed between Friday and Sunday.
ECOMOG said that Sankoh had told his fighters that they and their families would be well cared for by his newly formed Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP). Sankoh told his fighters that since the provisional registration of RUF as a political party last week, the movement had renounced war, ECOMOG said.
The DDR process has been slow since its official launch mid-October. Of an estimated 45,000 armed combatants in Sierra Leone, the total registered as of Monday was 2,451, plus 224 former child soldiers, a UNAMSIL source told IRIN.
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