ECOMOG mopping up in Freetown

Nigerian-led ECOMOG intervention troops were mopping up in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, today (Thursday) after driving out most of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) rebels, news reports said. ECOMOG Force Commander Timothy Shelpidi said yesterday (Wednesday) that some rebels were hiding in shantytowns around the Kissy area in the eastern end of the city. Speaking in his first briefing on the military situation since rebels attacked on 6 January, Shelpidi said the damage caused by the rebels was “colossal” but that electricity and phone lines might be fully restored by the weekend. He declined to give ECOMOG casualty figures, preferring to describe them as light. He said at least 1,000 rebels had died in the city. He added that ECOMOG could have finished off the rebels had the subregional force been equipped with military hardware, especially helicopter gunships such as the MI24. ECOMOG has only one helicopter, he said.