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Clash over stolen vehicle kills one, wounds one

One person was killed and another wounded in Sierra Leone when a vehicle stolen from the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) was stopped by ECOMOG soldiers, UN spokesman David Wimhurst said on Monday.

The dead man was the driver of the vehicle, according to Wimhurst, who said UN peacekeepers helped restore calm.

The incident occurred on Friday in Freetown and, according to information posted on the Sierra Leone Web, it involved ex-Sierra Leone Army (ex-SLA) rebels. The ex-SLA are former soldiers loyal to the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, AFRC, the military junta ousted by ECOMOG in February 1998.

The Sierra Leone Web reported on Monday that the wounded man, ex-SLA/AFRC commander ‘Lieutenant-Colonel’ George “Junior Lion” Johnson, was “alive and responding to treatment” at a military hospital in the Freetown area.


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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