(Rapaport…July 24, 2001) Human Rights Watch said on July 24 that atrocities against civilians in Sierra Leone’s Kono and Koinadugu regions have reached the highest level in several months.
At least 24 civilians, including nine children, were killed in June and July in attacks by pro-government militias against towns controlled by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, the human rights group documented. In apparent retaliatory attacks in June and early July, RUF fighters killed at least three children and abducted 16 people, including five children.
The group also reports that many villages have been burned and hundreds of civilians have been displaced by the attacks.