Following the release of four hostages last night, including the three remaining Britons, held by rebels in Sierra Leone the freeing of the remaining captives appeared imminent.
Nineteen hostages were released on Sunday after protracted negotiations. Initial reports indicated that all hostages had been released, but it later emerged that up to 20 more - mostly UN military observers and Nigerian troops - are still being held in Gbla, 64 km east of Freetown. They were kidnapped at gunpoint last Wednesday after being lured into a trap by the Armed Forces Resistance Council (AFRC) which had promised to hand over a large number of children and young women who were abducted during the civil war.
Hostage negotiators are concentrating on the AFRC soldiers' demand for guarantees for their own security after the captives are released, and their continued concerns about the fate of their leader, Johnny Paul Koroma, who headed a military junta which ruled Sierra Leone until it was overthrown last year, and who is now in Liberia.
The security question is likely to be addressed by an assurance from the Sierra Leone government that the AFRC renegades will not be pursued or prosecuted.
Many will view it as a small concession, given that last month's peace agreement to end the civil war gives a blanket amnesty to thousands of rebels for mass murder and mutilation of civilians.
Mr Koroma's status is more complicated. On Saturday the hostage negotiators engineered his flight to neighbouring Liberia in an attempt to persuade the AFRC soldiers in Gbla that he was not being held prisoner by Sierra Leone's main rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).