Share & more
Foday Sankoh, leader of the RUF, and Johnny Paul Koroma, head of Sierra Leone’s former military junta, have officially joined the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR), state radio said on Thursday.
Chaired by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the NCDDR is responsible for implementing, in collaboration with ECOMOG, UNOMSIL, UN agencies and NGOs, a plan for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of an estimated 45,000 ex-fighters in Sierra Leone.
Sankoh, Koroma and Deputy Defence Minister, Sam Hinga Norman, who also heads the pro-government Civil Defence Force (CDF), will travel to rebel and CDF strongholds to brief their respective supporters on the provisions of the Lome peace accord, state radio reported.
According to the BBC, local officials in Bo, impatient at the delays in the national disarmament plan, have launched their own programme: local officials and church leaders have appealed for donations to a Citizen’s Fund for Disarmament and collected the equivalent of US $ 20,000.
A source close to the disarmament process told IRIN that he was unable to confirm the BBC report but that he had heard reports that the CDF was collecting arms and registering its own people in Bo.
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