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UNAMSIL negotiates release of more child soldiers

    ABIDJAN

    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.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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