Mutinous Troops Race For Sierra Leone Diamond Mines Clashes In Interior Kill At Least 21; Evacuations On Hold As Flights Halted

Mutineers who overthrew Sierra Leone’s elected government rushed troops into the interior Thursday, aiming to capture the country’s lucrative diamond industry. Clashes in the region left at least 21 dead.

The fighting came as Nigeria warned it might use force to restore President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who fled the country Sunday.

The United States and the United Nations began to evacuate foreign nationals - many of whom had fled the diamond mining region - as Sierra Leone endured the fifth day of a coup that has left dozens dead and ravaged the capital.

Early today, a plane carrying 396 British, Canadians, Australians and other evacuees arrived at London’s Gatwick airport.

The Boeing 747 jetliner, chartered by the British Foreign Office, flew out aid workers, business people and missionaries, but there were apparently no Americans on board.

Later evacuations, however, were in question after the mutineers ordered all borders closed Thursday and banned foreign aircraft from entering the country’s air space. Internal flights were also prohibited. It was not immediately clear how the orders, read on national radio, would affect the evacuations.

Earlier, in Washington, the Pentagon announced that 250 American citizens will be flown out of Sierra Leone today because sporadic gunfire in Freetown.

“It’s not stable at all,” Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Richard Bridges said of the situation in the West African nation.

The Americans will be flown by helicopter to the Marine amphibious warship USS Kearsarge, 20 miles off shore, Bridges said. The U.S. embassy has already evacuated all non-essential personnel.

Sunday’s coup was the third in five years in Sierra Leone, a mineral-rich country impoverished by decades of corruption, political strife and civil war. Kabbah’s election in February 1996 ended several years of army rule and installed a civilian government.

Mutineers armed with AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades rumbled Thursday into Koidu Town, the capital of the diamond district, firing into the air to frighten away foreigners who work in the mining industry.

In nearby Massingbi, the renegades ambushed members of the Kamajor, a militia loyal to Kabbah, killing 20 of them, witnesses said. They added that the Kamajor appeared to be massing for a counterattack.

In Freetown, the mutineers joined forces of the Revolutionary United Front rebel army, which had waged a five-year war against the government, to cement control of the capital.

The foreign minister of Sierra Leone, Shirley Gbujama, was led away at gunpoint Thursday by mutineers, her daughter told the Associated Press. The 61-year-old minister was Sierra Leone’s first woman ambassador.

“She refused to go into hiding,” Lucia Gbujama said, speaking from New York. “No one knows where she is being held and no one has heard from her.”