He warned that the talks hinged on the release of Sankoh, who has been under house arrest in Nigeria since March. Meanwhile, the Independent National Mediation Committee set up earlier in the week is planning to send a mediation team to meet Kabbah in Guinea. Ugbo said that the Hausas, mainly of Nigerian extraction, have been arrested and taken to military camps for interrogation.
Local sources confirm that there is increasing anti-Nigerian sentiment particularly in Freetown.
He said some state security personnel had even taken over whole chiefdoms, chased out authorised officials and issued mining licences. In an effort to mitigate the impact of the war, humanitarian agencies have distributed agricultural inputs to 105 chiefdoms, mainly in the eastern and southern provinces. Approximately 141,000 bushels of rice were distributed to 126,000 farming families throughout Sierra Leone last month. A major uncertainty in estimating the impact of this aid is the extent to which crops may be looted by armed elements at harvest time. The degree to which the Kamajors, the pro-Kabbah militia, are willing to help farmers protect their crops is of critical importance.