U.N. peacekeepers flex muscles again in Sierra Leone

July 23, 2000
Web posted at: 2:57 a.m. EDT (0657 GMT)

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (Reuters) -- United Nations peacekeepers in Sierra Leone staged a fresh upcountry offensive Saturday, targeting a dissident faction from the ragtag pro-government coalition, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

Reports from Okra Hills on the highway from the capital Freetown to the interior spoke of heavy exchanges between peacekeepers and the dissidents, who took to the jungle after clashing with the new Sierra Leone army over status in June.

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U.N. spokeswoman Hirut Befecadu said that Indian, Jordanian and Nigerian peacekeepers, backed by air support, moved against the faction known as the West Side Boys, former rebels who rallied to the government after a 1999 peace deal.

The offensive, dubbed Operation Thunderbolt, followed the rescue last weekend of more than 230 peacekeepers and military observers pinned down by Revolutionary United Front rebels who took up arms in May after a dispute over disarmament.

Hirut said in a statement that the latest operation targeted the Okra Hills base of the West Side Boys who had been harrassing army and other traffic on the highway.

The aim was to secure the highway "to facilitate the free flow of people and humanitarian assistance," she added.

Okra Hills are just before Masiaka, a key junction town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Freetown.

The May rebel offensive caught the ill-prepared U.N. force off-guard and for a time threatened to derail the peacekeeping operation.

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), currently the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world, recovered its composure with the help of British forces sent to evacuate European and Commonwealth nationals.

The West Side Boys are dissident soldiers who toppled elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997 and installed Johnny Paul Koroma as military ruler.

Koroma, ousted by a Nigerian-led West African force that reinstated Kabbah in 1998, rallied to the peace deal and is described by government officials as still loyal to it.

"He is not, let's say, in full control of what is going on," Information Minister Julius Spencer told Reuters on Thursday, adding that Koroma was "solidly on the side of the government."

Like the RUF, some of the West Side Boys hacked hands, arms and other limbs from defenseless civilians during a reign of terror designed to erode support for Kabbah.

Members of the faction fought bloody clashes with their army allies in June and had been robbing or kidnapping civilian travelers on the main Freetown highway and disrupting army traffic since then.

Spencer blamed criminal elements in the Koroma faction.

Reports from the eastern diamond town of Tongo Field say other members of the West Side Boys fought RUF rebels for control there last week, triggering an exodus of civilians from the area.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Human Rights Watch
  • Sierra Leone 1999: Getting Away with Murder
  • Sowing Terror 1998: Atrocities against Civilians in Sierra Leone The Republic of Sierra Leone
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  • Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL)

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