303 Child soldiers arrive in Lunsar from Kabala

Similarly, 303 child soldiers from Kabala, all of whom are between eight and 14 years were brought to Lunsar on Monday, Francis Massaquoi of CARITAS told IRIN on Friday. “They are currently in CARITAS’s interim child care centre where we hope they will be reunified with their families,” he said. He added that the CARITAS team which fetched the child soldiers from Lunsar had been told by rebels that hundreds more (predominantly female) children would be released when they received the clearance from their commanders. In its situation report covering 5-16 January the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit for Sierra Leone (HACU) said “a significant number of children” had been reunified with their parents. Families have also been willing to come forward and foster children until their biological parents are found, HACU said.