Disarmament quickens in north

Disarmament is beginning to pick up in the northern district of Koinadugu after a slow start due to poor roads and a lack of transport, a humanitarian source in Freetown told IRIN on Monday.

The area is densely forested and combatants have to travel long distances to reach the disarmament camps. The situation is now getting better, the source said, as the UN is providing vehicles to transport combatants to the disarmament reception camps in Fadugu and Kabala.
Between 20-26 August 177 RUF fighters, among them seven children, and 46 pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF) handed over weapons in Koinadugu District, according to the UN.

The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service reported on Monday that elections would not be held until the rebel and government militia forces had laid down their arms. The government has also ruled out the possibility of an interim government as unconstitutional, state radio reported. The national electoral commissioner, Walter Nichol, told reporters in Freetown that electoral preparations have begun even though no date had been set. The Commonwealth Secretariat in London have sent a team to Sierra Leone, including legal and voter registration advisers, to help prepare the poll, the BBC reported Nichol as saying.