Diplomatic efforts sought to free abductees

Sierra Leone's government is pursuing diplomatic efforts to free its nationals who were abducted by armed men from Liberia in the eastern Kailahun District last month, Chief of Defence Staff Tom Carew, told a news conference in the capital, Freetown, on Thursday.

Carew was however quoted by the official Sierra Leone News Agency as saying he was dissatisfied with the response of Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea who, he said, had agreed to send a team to participate in a joint fact-finding mission along the border to assess how security in the area could be reinforced.

The army chief who had been on a tour of the border region, was quoted by Sierra Leone web, an online news provider, as saying that additional troops had been deployed along the Liberian border to forestall further armed incursions into Sierra Leone. The troops had disarmed 70 Liberian soldiers who were awaiting encampment in Port Loko District.

Unidentified armed men from Liberia crossed into Sierra Leone's Kokobu village in Kailahun district and abducted 18 people on 25 July. A week before another 28 people had been abducted from the same area.

Carew was quoted by news agencies as saying that three of the 46 abductees had returned home and said they were abducted by members of the Armed Forces of Liberia.

On Monday, the UN spokesman in Sierra Leone, Margaret Novicki, told IRIN that the abductees included women. Their whereabouts were unknown, Novicki said.

Kailahun borders on Liberia's Lofa County, plagued since 1998 by fighting between Liberian pro- and anti-government forces. Sierra Leonean troops have been beefed up in the area and UNAMSIL was continuing its border patrols, using helicopters and other troops, Novicki added. She said it was difficult to tell who was responsible for the cross-border raids.