Dakar - A group of 150 British paratroopers arrived in Dakar yesterday as "contingency planning" amid efforts to secure the release of the six remaining British soldiers held by a militia in the Sierra Leone bush. A spokesman for the British embassy in Senegal said Tuesday night's arrival of the troops was a "precautionary measure" amounting to "contingency planning", though hopes remained that the six would be freed without violence.
"It's better to have them here, 500 miles away from Freetown, than in Britain, which is 3,000 miles away," the deputy mission chief, Mr Patrick O'Brien, said of the men from the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, who landed at Dakar airport at 11.00 p.m. Irish time.