United States calls for peace

The United States called on the warring parties in Sierra Leone to begin peace talks, according to a report by AFP yesterday (Tuesday). Washington is “urging all players to come to the negotiating table to end the mayhem,” Susan Rice, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, told an international relations committee hearing in Washington. She said that it was critical to organise a meeting with RUF leader Foday Sankoh and senior rebel commanders to “clarify the RUF’s agenda and lines of authority”, AFP reported. She added that the humanitarian situation was “desperate”. Meanwhile, the BBC reported British Prime Minister Tony Blair as saying that the UK would continue to support the elected government in Freetown and urging Nigeria not to withdraw its troops until the country was secure. Blair made the statement yesterday during a meeting in London with Nigeria’s president-elect, Olusegun Obasanjo. Nigeria provides the majority of troops to the ECOMOG forces in Sierra Leone.