Sierra Leone losing religious relief workers

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Catholic relief Services has withdrawn its workers from strife-torn Sierra Leone where a number of United Nations peacekeepers have been killed.

Four workers in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, were evacuated May 6 to Conakry, Guinea, because of security concerns, said a spokeswoman for Catholic Relief Services, the official overseas relief and development agency of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops. She said several agency workers who are from Sierra Leone remain in the country, and the evacuated workers will rejoin them if the political situation in the country improves.

The evacuation is the latest evacuation order by groups with workers in the embattled West African nation, where rebel fighters are believed to be holding hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers hostage. More than 8,000 U.N. troops from India, Jordan and several countries in Africa are in Sierra Leone to help supervise a 1999-peace accord intended to bring an end to nearly 10 years of civil war between the government and Revolutionary United Front rebels.

Most of the United Nations’ civilian staff were evacuated from Sierra Leone May 8, The Associated Press reported, as were more than 260 U.S. State Department nonessential employees. About 320 British, European Union and Commonwealth citizens were evacuated also, according to a British Ministry of Defense spokeswoman.