SIERRA Leone forces yesterday held some 300 Nigerian soldiers as human shields in the capital to further frustrate Nigeria's determination to topple a nine-day-old junta. Sierra Leone state radio repeatedly broadcast reports of 300 Nigerian soldiers being held as "lucrative targets which would-be targets for any possible Nigerian bombardment" of the city.
The radio also said the junta had intercepted messages "which revealed that the Nigerian air force is planning an aerial bombardment of the capital."
Meanwhile, US marines resumed the evacuation of foreign nationals from the city, airlifting around 1,200 people by helicopter, according to Pentagon officials in Washington.
Some 80 civilians died as a result of a Nigerian naval bombardment of the capital early on Monday, state radio reported yesterday, adding that around 100 people, mainly women and children, had been seriously injured in the attack. But yesterday Nigerian forces were absent at several key positions they had held on Monday, including the international airport and a strategic bridge. Observers suggested the Nigerians in Freetown had been routed.
"They've been pulled off," a western military source said on condition of anonymity, adding Nigerian troops had lost all the positions previously held.
Earlier yesterday, a correspondent saw some 300 Nigerian soldiers detained inside the capital's Wilberforce Camp. Military sources said most had been captured either at Lungi international airport, some 50 km from central Freetown or from Jui, 25 km east of the capital, where a Nigerian contingent of the west African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, has a base.
Their capture lent credence to reports that Nigerian troops had lost control of the airport.
Reports from the eastern town of Kenema suggested a further 100 Nigerian troops had been detained there, but this could not be independently confirmed. The junta on Monday evening issued an ultimatum to the Nigerians to leave Sierra Leone immediately or "face the cosequences", a Sierra Leone defence source said.
Yesterday, however, hundreds of Nigerian troops were being air-lifted to Freetown by helicopter from Monrovia, the capital of neighbouring Liberia, a correspondent there reported.
Also yesterday, the Nigerian Foreign Minister, Mr Tom Ikimi, said in Harare that Nigeria was intent on restoring to power the legitimate government of the ousted elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who fled to Guinea after the coup.
"Nigeria is going to ensure that peace, stability and a legitimate government are restored in Sierra Leone," Chief Ikimi said in the Zimbabwean capital, where he was attending a summit of the Organisation of African Unity.
Observers suggest Nigeria may not have counted on the alliance forged last week between the Sierra Leone army and the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel group.