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Army chief flown home for urgent medical care

    ABIDJAN

    Sierra Leone's chief of defence staff, Brigadier General Maxwell Khobe, has been flown to Nigeria for urgent medical treatment, presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN on Thursday.

    "He left Freetown on Tuesday and arrived safely in Abuja the same
    evening," Kaikai said. "Reports I received yesterday said he was
    responding relatively well to treatment but I have no information on his condition today."

    Kaikai was unable to give details of Kobe's illness but the Sierra Leone News Agency reported reliable sources as saying that his condition was "very serious".

    Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has designated Colonel Tom Carew acting chief of defence staff.

    Khobe commanded the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, that drove Major Johnny Paul Koroma's military junta from power in February 1998 and restored Kabbah, who Koroma had toppled the previous year. After Kabbah's restoration, Kobe - an officer in the Nigerian army - was then seconded to the Sierra Leonean military as chief of defence staff.

    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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