600 ex-fighters show up at DDR site

Some 600 ex-combatants turned up over the weekend at disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) sites in Port Loko district, northeast of Freetown, a senior Sierra Leonean official said on Tuesday. Francis Kaikai, executive secretary of the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR) told IRIN there was not enough space to accomodate the new arrivals as the sites were already congested. “We are trying to transfer some of the ex-combatants to Lungi but we are having difficulties convincing them to move,” Kaikai said. “In the meantime the Emergency Response Team (ERT) is addressing the logistical requirements.” ERT, funded by the British Department for International Development, is responsible for the physical infrastructure of the demobilisation camps. Kaikai said some of the new arrivals had come from Makeni, some 90 km east of Port Loko. He added that efforts were underway to establish demobilisation camps at Makeni and at Magburaka, some 20 km southeast of Makeni. As at 23 January just over 13,000 former fighters had been disarmed from an estimated 45,000, according to NCDDR. In addition, over 5,200 weapons and 63,000 rounds of ammunition had been collected.