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More SLA troops complete training

    ABIDJAN

    Another 19 officers and 1,000 soldiers from the Sierra Leone Army’s 14th Battalion took part in a passing-out ceremony on Thursday at the Benguema Military Training Centre, 26 km southeast of Freetown, Sierra Leone Web reported.

    The internet-based news service quoted British Army Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Smith as saying that the SLA troops would receive a further six weeks’ training at Newton, 7.5 km northeast of Benguema. Sierra Leone Web reported that the 14th Battalion was the seventh batch of Sierra Leonean soldiers to receive British training under a programme initiated last year.

    Sierra Leone’s army was destroyed by the civil war, which started in 1991. A British military team is rebuilding it to a strength of 8,000 soldiers, and is due to complete its task in September, after which it will hand over to an International Military Advisory and Training Team.

    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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