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Copyrighted material for nonprofit educational use only. UN force retrieves 37 captive children in S Leone UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2 (Reuters) - U.N. military officers freed 37 abducted children who served as fighters or labourers for rebels in Sierra Leone during the West African nation's eight-year old civil war, the United Nations reported on Wednesday. The children, including one girl, were between 6 and 12 years of age. ``Some of the younger children appeared to be malnourished,'' U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. They had been held in Occra Hills in the northern part of the country, a rebel stronghold area, about 45 miles (70 km) from Freetown, the capital. The children, whose release was negotiated by U.N. military observers, were taken on Tuesday to Freetown and handed over to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Earlier this month, on January 22, the peacekeepers retrieved 29 children from the same location, Eckhard said. UNICEF estimates that about 5,000 children, some of them as young as 5, have taken part in the war with 4,000 still missing, most of them kidnapped by the rebels. The insurgents are known for their extraordinary brutality, including mass killings, gang-rapes and amputation of arms, legs and ears. Since a peace agreement last July, the rebels have turned over some 800 children to UNICEF, the agency said. The United Nations is fielding a peacekeeping force of 6,000 that is expected to be increased to 10,000 troops, but disarmament of some 45,000 guerrillas, due to have been completed on December 15, is well behind schedule. However, many of the rebels and their rogue military counterparts are still in control of some northern areas and are continuing atrocities, despite the peace pact. On Tuesday, U.N. human rights monitors with the U.N. operation reported gangs were again looting villages, burning houses, raping women and mutilating civilians in the northwest Port Loko area. Some 2,000 rebels were reported to have looted a dozen villages north and south of Port Loko as well as nearby settlements. They then kidnapped people gathering wood, water or food in isolated fields for several days. Men were forced to do manual labour while girls were often raped and told to cook and clean for the rebels. Some of the victims were badly beaten and at least one was mutilated. The U.N. human rights experts attributed the abuses to followers of Foday Sankoh, leader of the Revolutionary United Front, which is now in the government, and his ally, former junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma. 22:09 02-02-00 Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.
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