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Number of people fleeing Sierra Leone fighting rising, UN refugee agency says
11 August -- Some 2,500 refugees, including 15 child soldiers and women and children held by the rebels in Sierra Leone, have fled into Guinea over a four-day period this week, according to the United Nations refugee agency. 

The refugees said they were fleeing intensified fighting in Sierra Leone's diamond-rich area, fear of government bombing over rebel-held positions, and harassment by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva today. Some 4,000 people have fled to Guinea over the last two weeks, compared with only 600 between May and July, he said.

 The latest group includes "a substantial number of young girls and women have declared that they were held against their will, some for several years, by RUF rebel forces who recently decided to free them," Mr. Redmond said.

 At least two girls were among the group of 15 child soldiers, which also includes one who had been in the Sierra Leone army. "All said they had been heavily drugged with cocaine, and acknowledged that they had been extremely brutal and aggressive," he said. "They are now asking to be removed from the camps, where they fear some of their former victims may recognize them." Currently separated from the rest of the camp population, the child soldiers are receiving medical and psychological attention.