Sankoh on his way home

Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh arrived in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, on Wednesday aboard a Togolese military plane on anindirect route home some eight weeks after signing a peace agreement with his country's government, news reports said.

Sankoh brushed aside appeals by the Togolese officials that he go directly to Freetown, AFP reported. Instead, he insisted on being flown to meet first with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore. Sankoh told Reuters news agency from Lome, Togo, on Monday that he would later go to Cote d'Ivoire and await confirmation by his advance party in Freetown that he would be safe there.

Sankoh had said he would arrive in Freetown once his security was assured. A guarantee to that effect was given by the West African Peace Monitoring Force (ECOMOG) which, last weekend, said that final plans had been made for Sankoh's return and that of his Armed Forces Revolutionary Council ally, Johnny Paul Koroma.

Sankoh, convicted of treason, will now be returning home a free man under the provisions of the Lome peace accord, signed on 7 July, that ended nine years of war.

Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has been brought into the government under the peace deal. However, reports have it that there is opposition to this in Sierra Leone due to the widespread atrocities, including thousands of amputations, that the RUF/AFRC perpetrated.