United Nations peacekeepers last night
disarmed 240 combatants in northern Sierra Leone, marking the single largest
such operation carried out to date by the UN mission in that country, a
UN spokesman said today in New York.
The operation follows the disarmament
of 60 rebels by peacekeepers in Northern Sierra Leone yesterday morning,
when the rebels handed over assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades,
machine guns and other weapons, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
After ten days of clashes between two rival factions, UN peacekeepers convinced one of the leaders, who calls himself "Colonel Savage," to come out of the bush and bring out his fighters.
The disarmed combatants and their families are being transported in a UN convoy from Kabala to Lungi, where the rebels will register for the disarmament programme. Another 95 rebels came out of the bush without weapons and are also being registered.