Sankoh expelled from South Africa

The leader of the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP), Foday Sankoh, was expelled from South Africa and arrived in Cote d'Ivoire on Monday. He had travelled in violation of a UN Security Council travel ban.

Sankoh's visa was withdrawn on Saturday following an apparent mistake on the part of the mission that authorised the visa, a spokesman from the South African Department of Foreign Affairs told IRIN on Monday.

The mission was under the impression that the travel ban by the UN Security Council Committee on Sanctions was no longer in place, the spokesman said. Sankoh, who was met at Abidjan's international airport by Foreign Minister Christophe M'Boua, was expected to stay overnight, the BBC reported Ivorian officials as saying.

The presidential spokesman in Sierra Leone, Septimus Kaikai, told IRIN on Monday that the government was not aware that Sankoh was travelling to South Africa and did not know the reasons for his visit.

The UN Security Council Committee on Sanctions held an urgent meeting on Friday to discuss the fact that Sankoh had left Sierra Leone without authorisation from the committee, a UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) news release said on Saturday.

The members of the committee "urged the return of Mr Sankoh to Sierra Leone immediately", saying that he had violated a travel ban imposed by the Security Council in June 1998 on leading members of the RUF and the former military junta, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.