RUF expels ex-AFRC from northern town

RUF rebels have occupied the northern town of Makeni expelling members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) who were previously based there, according to the director of CARITAS, Makeni, Ibrahim Sesay.

Sesay told IRIN that the fighting between the two groups was sparked off by the arrival of a group of RUF from Kailahun and a group from Magburaka, led by ‘Brigadier’ Issa Sesay. After taking over the Teko barracks on the outskirts of Makeni they ended up moving into the town itself.

A source in Freetown told IRIN: “This was a clash between personalities, not an organisational skirmish.”

However, RUF leader Foday Sankoh told reporters in the Sierra Leonean capital on Tuesday: “We will displace AFRC former soldiers once and for all if they continue to attack our positions in the north as they did on Friday at Makeni and yesterday in Lunsar.”