Share & more
Around 40 people were missing on Wednesday, according to AFP, after unidentified armed men seized the bus in which they were travelling on Monday.
AFP quoted a transport official as saying that an armed group stopped the bus near Masiaka, about 40 km north-east of Freetown, robbed its passengers and forced some of them to carry the stolen goods into the bush.
The bus was reportedly driven into the bush, where it was abandoned by the armed men.
A humanitarian source told IRIN that the incident was a “resource-motivated hijacking”, a euphemism for banditry.
Sources in Freetown had told IRIN soon after the peace agreement signed in July in Lome that the disarmament of ex-combatants and their reintegration into society were crucial to peace since they could otherwise continue to loot.
In a report issued at the end of September, UN Secretary-General estimated that there were 45,000 fighters in Sierra Leone waiting to be disarmed, demobilised and reintegrated.
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