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Lunsar falls to government forces

    ABIDJAN

    The Sierra Leone Army (SLA) said on Monday it had retaken the strategic town of Lunsar, news organisations reported.

    A military spokesman told reporters in the capital that Lunsar, some 80 km northeast of Freetown on a major road leading to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) stronghold of Makeni, was captured early on Monday.

    Meanwhile the UN spokesman in Freetown David Wimhurst told reporters on Tuesday that 224 Indian UN peacekeepers and 11 military observers of various nationalities, were unable to move out of the eastern region of Kailahun, territory controlled by RUF rebels. UN sources said they are in addition to the 23 UN peacekeepers still surrounded near Kuiva, Kailahun District.

    Following the release of the remaining UN peacekeepers at the weekend, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Sunday he was “delighted” by the development and grateful to the West African leaders who helped realise this, “in particular to President Charles Taylor of Liberia who took the lead in arranging the peacekeeper’s release”.

    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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