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Ten RUF commanders killed

[Senegal] Mame Diarra Seek heads the Senegalese association for help and support of HIV-positive people and their families (ASASSFA). Living with HIV/AIDS for ten years, she is under antiretroviral treatment since 1998 in a country among the less affected Pierre Holtz/IRIN
Mame Diarra Seek préside l’Association sénégalaise d’aide et de soutien aux séropositifs et à leurs familles (ASASSFA). Séropositive elle-même, elle est sous traitement ARV depuis 1998.
    DAKAR

    Ten commanders of the anti-government Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were killed when their boat exploded in the Moa River near Manowa, in the eastern district of Kailahun, The Sierra Leone News Agency, SLENA, reported.

    It said on Monday that the rebel commanders were returning from a general meeting in Buedu, seven km from the border with Liberia, when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded and split the boat in two. Most of the victims drowned, SLENA said. It cited Daru businesswoman Fatmata Jalloh as saying she saw two uniformed corpses afloat on the Moa River near the town.

    SLENA said the rebels’ meeting “ended in disarray” with most of them rejecting a proposal by the representative of Liberia’s President Charles Taylor, “who insisted that the RUF must not allow the British troops to deploy in their areas especially in Kono and Tongo fields”.

    These are diamond fields controlled by the RUF. Taylor has always denied involvement in smuggling gems out of Sierra Leone. The report did not say if the explosion was an accident or a deliberate act. There has been a reported split in the RUF with no clear leadership emerging with which to hold talks about restarting the implementation of the Lome peace accord.

    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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