About 2,500 refugees fled intense fighting in the diamond-mining areas of eastern Sierra Leone and crossed into Guinea in the past week, the United Nations said on Friday.
Quoting figures from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a spokesman said the refugees included 15 child soldiers and women and girls who had been held by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
"Many of the women and girls said that they were held against their will, sometimes for years, by RUF forces who only recently decided to let them go," spokesman Manoel De Almeida e Silva said.
"They had been serving as domestic workers or camp guards, and some of the women said they had been abused," he added, noting they had crossed over in a four-day period during the past week.
"All of the 15 child soldiers said that they had been heavily drugged with cocaine after being captured by the rebels and forced to fight."
UNHCR said that the number of refugees entering Guinea from Sierra Leone had increased since the end of July, with more than 4,000 arriving in the past two weeks alone - UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
