ECOMOG retakes most of central Freetown

Humanitarian sources still in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, said today (Friday) that the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, had retaken most of the positions held by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) rebels in the centre of the city. A humanitarian official in Abidjan, who had been in touch with colleagues in Freetown, told IRIN that ECOMOG had retaken Wilberforce, Aberdeen and Lumley Beach and were mopping up in Brookfields where the United Nations Military Observer Mission for Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) is located. Earlier press reports said that ECOMOG had also retaken Pademba Road Prison and State House. A humanitarian source in the besieged city said the rebels forced people from their homes and gave them white handkerchiefs to wave in a show of pro-rebel support. Some children who refused to comply were shot, the source said.