Rebels and abducted civilians move to urban areas

Civilians and former junta soldiers have been leaving the bush for Freetown and other provincial towns since the signing of the Lome peace accord on 7 July, sources in the Sierra Leonean capital told IRIN. A humanitarian source in Freetown said that on 8 July, ECOMOG asked two of its relief trucks to bring back 118 abducted civilians to Freetown from Makpele Junction, located between Port Loko and Masiaka. Many of the released abductees were teachers and students, the source told IRIN. Other reliable sources said they had heard reports of 250 former soldiers who had served under the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) junta gathering in the Waterloo area on the outskirts of Freetown, apparently from the RUF stronghold of Occra Hills. There have also been reports of several hundred former junta soldiers in the Port Loko area. A UNOMSIL spokesperson told IRIN former junta soldiers and members of the RUF tended to come out of the bush in small groups of no more than about 60 people. [See separate item titled `Rebels leaving the bush, sources say']