Some 254 ex-government soldiers airlifted to Kenema

Some 254 former government troops were airlifted on Thursday from the Daru Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) camp to Kenema after receiving clearance to join the new Sierra Leone Army, UNAMSIL said. The recruits were taken to join other colleagues in Kenema - which, like Daru is in the southeast of Sierra Leone, from where they will be proceed to the British-run Benguema military training camp, some 37 km southeast of Freetown. UNAMSIL said it believed the action would “further encourage all combatants to join the DDR process”. UNAMSIL said 22 Revolutionary United Front troops - among them one child soldier - in the Kenema area gave themselves up, and turned in 16 AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, to the pro-government Civil Defence Forces. They were handed over to the UNAMSIL Military Observers Centre in Kenema. UNAMSIL said it would screen, thoroughly, all combatants that join the DDR programme without their weapons. UNAMSIL said it used its helicopters to help Catholic Relief Services and the UN World Food Programme transport food and medicine to people in Kabala, in the far north of the country. UNAMSIL has not yet deployed to the town, but has sent in a reconnaissance team to report on the situation.