Abducted children released from Occra Hills

A UN military observer team secured the release on Tuesday of 37 former child combatants held by ex-rebels, Fred Eckhard, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said on Wednesday. Eckhard said the children, some of them as young as six, had been held at the rebel base in the Occra Hills, some 70km from Freetown. Some of the younger children appeared malnourished, Eckhard said. They were taken to the Lungi demobilisation centre, north of Freetown to await their handing over to child protection agencies, according to an information bulletin by the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR) dated 2 February. UNICEF estimates that about 5,000 children have been involved in the conflict in Sierra Leone. More than half of the 4,000 still missing have been classified as cases of abduction.