The Sierra Leonean army and rebels battled yesterday for a town that controls the highway to Freetown, sending thousands of civilians fleeing towards the capital, military officials and witnesses said. One unconfirmed report said that the town, Masiaka, 56 km from Freetown, had fallen to the rebels.
The UN peacekeeping force said its troops had withdrawn from Masiaka the previous day after running short of ammunition.
Fleeing civilians who arrived on the eastern approaches to Freetown crammed into taxis, clinging onto trucks or walking, quoted villagers between Masiaka and Freetown saying the rebels were coming.
Military sources said fighters loyal to the rebel leader, Mr Foday Sankoh, had attacked Masiaka on Monday.
The rebels have been advancing towards Freetown since last week in defiance of the July 7th, 1999 peace agreement that Mr Sankoh signed in Togo's capital Lome.
Freetown was calm yesterday, one day after Mr Sankoh's rivals stormed and overran his home after his bodyguards had fired on several thousand peace protesters who tried to force their way into the compound. At least 16 people died in the initial shooting and later exchanges - seven of them civilians. Mr Sankoh is at the heart of a stand-off with the UN which provoked the latest unrest. This erupted on May 1st when a dispute over disarmament led to his rebel forces taking some 500 UN peacekeepers hostage.
The whereabouts of Mr Sankoh was uncertain after he went missing following the attack on his home. "Chairman Sankoh is still wanted by the government to continue the peace process," Deputy Defence Minister Mr Samuel Hinga Norman said, adding that loyalist forces had been sent to Masiaka to halt the rebel advance.
"What we are doing is to push back the RUF combatants to their respective area," he said, adding that the aim was to return them to areas they held when the peace deal was signed.
Earlier a senior source in the fledgling Sierra Leone army, which has been taking shape since the peace deal, said that it had taken Mr Sankoh under its wing for his protection. The source said the army wanted to ensure his safety, fearing peace would break down completely if anything happened to him.
British paratroopers, flown in to evacuate British and other nationals, held Lungi international airport across the estuary from Freetown and began the evacuation. British officials in nearby Senegal said 181 British, European Union and Commonwealth citizens had been flown there yesterday.
France has placed its troops on alert in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to help evacuate foreigners. The head of UN peacekeeping operations, Undersecretary-General Mr Bernard Miyet, arrived in Freetown late on Monday to discuss ways of rescuing the crumbling peace pact. The UN, plagued by inadequate communications, lack of troops and a limited mandate, has been struggling to keep a lid on the crisis.
In Nigeria, leaders of Sierra Leone's neighbours met to discuss ways of bolstering the flagging peacekeeping operation. At the top of their agenda was a UN request for Nigeria to send two battalions to create a rapid reaction force.
Guardian Service adds:
Four Irish nuns from the Holy Rosary Sisters were among the 215 citizens evacuated out of Sierra Leone.
Sister Celia Doyle, from Co Wexford, said she had lived in Sierra Leone since 1968 and evacuation had happened so often it was regarded as an occupational hazard. "I suppose you get used to it in a way so I have taken my year's leave now and will not be coming back until my two months' break is over. I never get frightened here, but things have got rather tense in the last few days."