More than 25 girls between seven and 10-years-old were gang-raped in one day last weekend by rebels in a northern Sierra Leone town, a witness said Tuesday, as human rights groups and the United Nations reported an increase in atrocities against civilians.

"They were screaming like hell while the rebels were simply cracking jokes about the affair. It was a sad experience for me," a resident from Makeni told AFP, after arriving in Freetown.

The resident, who asked not to be identified, said dozens of young boys were being drugged daily with cocaine and trained to fight against pro-government forces.

Mohamed Lahai, a farmer who also escaped Makeni, a rebel-controlled town 140 kilometres (90 miles) northeast of the capital, said an estimated 40,000 residents had fled the township by bush paths and small roads.

Lahai, who arrived in the capital Tuesday, described Makeni as "hell on earth".

"Every civilian is viewed with suspicion as a government spy and repeatedly threatened with death," he said.

Lahai said six rebels "cut into pieces a farmer, Pa Joe Kamara when they found out he was planning to escape."

The United Nations in New York said Monday that its mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) had confirmed the flight of civilians from rebel-held areas, and said that "recent fighting has been accompanied by a rise in human rights violations, including summary executions, rape and sexual abuse, and the recruitment of child soldiers."

In its latest report issued on June 30, Amnesty International said fighting that broke out in May after rebels began seizing UN peackeepers, have "further aggravated the incidence of rape".

One victim, a woman in her twenties from Masiaka, some 40 kilometresmiles) from Freetown, was abducted, "stripped and raped by seven combatants".

Amnesty condemned the repeated incidents of rape, now considered to be a war crime.

Since launching their bush war in 1991, the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has been notorious for murdering, raping and mutilating thousands of civilians, and for abducting thousands of children who were forced to fight in its ranks or act as porters or sex slaves.

Human rights groups slammed the blanket amnesty granted to rebels in July 1999, at the signing the Lome Peace Agreement.

The rights activists said the cycle of impunity would not stop unless rebels and their founder Foday Sankoh, were tried for their crimes.

Sierra Leone authorities said they plan to try Sankoh, who was arrested in mid-May in Freetown, for crimes against humanity.

In late June, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock, said the UN Security Council would "be looking very hard at a form of tribunal for Foday Sankoh that will be a combination of Sierra Leone law and judicial process and an international input."

Meanwhile, some 30 humanitarian agencies expressed concern Tuesday about recent fighting among factions of pro-government troops.

Recently, a militia called the Westside Boys, former army deserters who had rejoined loyalist forces in May, have been clashing with soldiers from Sierra Leone's army.

"If the situation between the Westside Boys and the Sierra Leone army remains unresolved, humanitarian operations to the displaced will be hampered," a statement by agencies said.

The deputy head of Sierra Leone's Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reconstruction (RRR) Commission, Justin Bangura, said there was worry "for people caught up in areas that are now inaccessible".

 
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