100 Child soldiers arrive in Freetown from Kabala

In a further sign that peace is gradually returning to Sierra Leone, 100 child soldiers from Kabala, in the north, arrived in Freetown on Thursday, the Reverend Peter Francis of the local NGO, Children Associated with the War (CAW), told IRIN on Friday. “They are currently being medically screened at CAW’s reception centre for children in Freetown. Many are malnourished and have no clothing,” he said. ECOMOG had asked CAW, he said, to pick up the child soldiers and provided an escort for the journey. Francis rebutted media reports that the child soldiers were kidnapped by rebels on the return to Freetown, but acknowledged that the mission sent to pick them up did encounter some problems with the RUF in Makeni on the way to Kabala. “We left Freetown on Tuesday but when we reached Makeni we were told by the RUF that they needed clearance from Foday Sankoh before they could allow us to proceed,” Francis told IRIN. “We had to spend the night at the RUF brigade headquarters and after explaining the purpose of our mission we were allowed to proceed even though clearance had not been received from Sankoh.”