Key Sierra Leone road again closed by rebel attack

FREETOWN, July 25 (Reuters) -- A key highway to the interior of Sierra Leone from the capital, Freetown, has been closed again to traffic because of rebel attacks, days after the United Nations said its troops had driven the fighters into the hills.

United Nations spokeswoman Hirut Befecadu told a press briefing on Tuesday that the West Side Boys -- former soldiers who recently split from a pro-government alliance -- had ambushed two buses on Monday on the road to Masiaka.

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She said the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was trying to negotiate with the West Side Boys to clear the road again.

Witnesses said hundreds of commercial vehicles were lined up at Songo Junction, about 30 miles (48 km) from Freetown and south of Masiaka, hoping to use a secondary road to the east from Songo via Mabang.

However, road authorities and relief agencies have said that a bridge at Mabang is dangerous and only light vehicles should use it.

The West Side Boys are former soldiers who were loyal to the military junta that ruled Sierra Leone in 1997/98.

They rallied to the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to fight Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in May after a civil war peace deal fell apart but took to the Okra hills outside Freetown in June after clashing with the new Sierra Leone Army.

UNAMSIL troops moved against the West Side Boys on Saturday, pushing them into the hills and dismantling barricades they had erected to harass travellers.

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