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Agriculture minister charged with corruption

    ABIDJAN

    Sierra Leone's minister of agriculture, Harry Will, was sacked on Monday and arrested in connection with corruption charges, news organisations reported on Monday.

    According to a presidential statement, the arrest of the minister and two senior aides is part of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's drive against corruption. The precise allegations against the three were not detailed but Reuters reported senior officials as saying they related to misappropriation of foreign aid money.

    The arrests come shortly after authorities began investigating fraud in the Education Ministry. According to the BBC, nine ministry officials have been arrested and accused of colluding with police officers to misappropriate teachers' salaries worth US $100 million.

    Sankoh returns from Libya to tour West Africa

    The leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Foday Sankoh, said on Monday that he planned to tour West Africa before taking up his duties in Freetown, news organisations reported.

    He returned to Togo at the weekend after spending several days in Libya, which has been accused in the past of providing support to the rebels.

    According to AFP, he said he had wanted to thank President Muammar Gaddafi for his country's mediation in the peace process.

    Sankoh plans to travel to Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia to visit "good friends" before finally returning to Sierra Leone at a date which he did not specify. He said his return had been delayed by "security and accommodation problems", AFP reported.

    Under a peace accord signed on 7 July between the government and the RUF, Foday Sankoh is to chair a Commission for the Management of Strategic Resources, National Reconstruction and Development, and would be answerable only to Kabbah.

    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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