SIERRA LEONE: Diamond Mining Towns Recaptured by Gov’t Troops

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jun 2 1999 (IPS) - Sierra Leonean troops, backed by the West African Peacekeeping force ECOMOG, have recaptured the diamond-rich towns of Tongo and Koidu, according to military and civilian sources in the capital Freetown.

Tongo is situated about 270 kilometres east of the capital Freetown and it had been under the control of rebel forces since December last year.

On Tuesday, the town was reported to be under siege by local militia fighters or Kamajors, who are fighting on the side of the government.

“The battle for Tongo lasted for four hours and by sunset on Tuesday, the town had been overran and rebels forced to flee into the bush,” said Prince Brima, a freelance journalist in the town.

He told IPS that heavily-armed Kamajors attacked and dislodged the dissidents, in retaliation for recent rebel attacks on three towns in the south and east of the country.

Military sources have also confirmed the recapture of Tongo, much to the pleasure of the cash-strapped government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and many Sierra Leoneans, who had earlier campaigned for the government’s pursuit of the military option in the conflict, until all diamond-rich regions were liberated, before a ceasefire was signed.

The diamond-rich district of Kono, 330 kilometres east of Freetown, has also been recaptured from rebels.

Rebels had been occupying all the diamond-mining areas for several months, thus cutting off the government’s economic heartbeat.

“Sierra Leone has lost millions of US Dollars in revenue in the six months of rebel seizure of the diamond fields and diamond accounts for over 50 percent of government revenue,” says an official of the Ministry of Mines in Freetown.

Sierra Leone’s belligerents have accused each other of violating the ceasefire signed in the Togolese capital last week.

“Ceasefire or no ceasefire, I think that it is reasonable for the government to make absolute control of the mining districts. The rebels cannot be allowed to hold the entire nation hostage,” says a government official in Freetown.

Many Sierra Leoneans had placed hopes in the on-going peace talks, between the government and rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Lome.

The talks were brokered by West African leaders, the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and they have been going on for more than one week.

There are, however, fears in Sierra Leone that President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was sworn-in Saturday, may withdraw all Nigerian troops from the strife-torn west African country to fulfill an election pledge.

Nigerians make up more than 75 percent of the 14,000 ECOMOG forces deployed in Sierra Leone to prop up the beleaguered civilian government of President Kabbah against rebel forces.

The conflict in Sierra Leone erupted in 1991 when former army corporal Foday Sankoh launched a bush war to overthrow the government of then President Joseph Momoh.

Since then, more than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict, while an estimated quarter of the country’s 4.5 million people are scattered as refugees in neighbouring countries.