UNAMSIL negotiates release of more child soldiers

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) on Wednesday successfully negotiated the release of another group of children from a rebel-held area, according to a UNAMSIL statement. Eleven boys and four girls, some as young as eight and all in apparently good condition, were freed from a site in the Occra Hills, 70 miles northeast of Freetown. All had been behind rebel lines for more than a year. Children who said that they had been fighting alongside the rebels were taken to a demobilisation camp in Lungi, near the international airport north of Freetown. The others were taken to a child day care centre. "Several combatants from different factions have told UNAMSIL they are eager to release all abductees and child soldiers and to enter the [disarmament] programme," UNAMSIL said.