British troops arrive in Freetown

An advance party of British troops from the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment has arrived in Freetown to assist in the evacuation of UK, EU and Commonwealth nationals if the security situation requires it, a spokesman from the British Ministry of Defence in London told IRIN on Monday. The main body of the task force on its way to Sierra Leone will comprise the remainder of the regiment of about 600 soldiers, an amphibious helicopter carrier with some 600 marines on board, a frigate and three support ships, the spokesman said. Meanwhile, some 15 military experts from Britain arrived in Freetown on Saturday to offer “advice and guidance” to the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) force, the spokesman said. There are over 8,000 UN troops already in Sierra Leone and efforts are being made to speed up the deployment of the remaining 3,000 soldiers to bring it up to its full strength, news reports said. Negotiations were still ongoing to try to secure the release of several hundred UNAMSIL peacekeepers detained since last week by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), led by Foday Sankoh. News reports over the weekend said that contact had been lost with an additional 200 UN troops, bringing the total unaccounted for to over 500. A statement by UNAMSIL on Saturday saying that RUF rebels were on the outskirts of Freetown and causing panic among civilians was later retracted, news reports said. According to the BBC, RUF commander ‘General’ Issa Sesay said on Sunday that his troops were no longer advancing towards Freetown and had retreated to the northern RUF stronghold of Makeni. Sesay had a meeting with UNAMSIL’s Deputy Force Commander, General Mohammed Garba, in the northern area of Lunsar and said that Sankoh had ordered him to withdraw his troops from Rogberi (also in the north) and Lunsar, the BBC reported.