UNAMSIL investigating RUF,CDF skirmishes

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) is looking into clashes between Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and forces loyal to the Sierra Leonean government near the eastern diamond area of Tongo Field, a UNAMSIL source told IRIN on Monday. “UNAMSIL can confirm these reports of skirmishes between CDF (Civil Defence Forces) and the RUF, and is investigating them,” Patrick Coker, acting spokesman for UNAMSIL, said. The clashes occurred on Thursday. The area is now quiet and some 2,500 civilians who fled the fighting to the eastern town of Kenema started returning to their villages on Monday, Coker said. He did not have any information on casualty figures. It was unclear who started the fighting, which appeared to be the most serious confirmed breach so far of a five-month-old ceasefire, Reuters reported military sources as saying. RUF spokesman Gibril Massaquoi accused government forces of attacking their positions, while the CDF said they repelled a rebel attack, news organisations reported on Friday. Sierra Leone’s civil war started in 1991. A July 1999 peace agreement between the government and the RUF fell apart in May 2000, after the rebels abducted about 500 UN peacekeepers. The two sides signed a new ceasefire agreement in November 2000 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.