Annan appoints new deputy commander of UN mission in Sierra Leone
6 November -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to appoint Major-General Martin Luther Agwai of Nigeria as Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), a UN spokesman said today in New York.
Briefing reporters at UN Headquarters, spokesman Fred Eckhard said Major General Agwai would replace the outgoing Deputy Force Commander Mohammad Garbar, also of Nigeria.
In other news, Nigerian UN peacekeepers and Sierra Leonean soldiers were called in to quell a violent demonstration in Freetown early Sunday morning, when 800-1000 residents threw stones at police officers after they failed to respond promptly to the report of an attempted robbery, the spokesman said. The police had arrived on the scene some two and half hours after the crime had been reported.
During the incident, at least 16 people were wounded. UN peacekeepers did not fire their weapons, the UN Mission said.
On the political front, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, is on his way to Nigeria today to attend a meeting of the Coordination Mechanism for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The Sierra Leonean Government and UN representatives will also participate in the meeting, which will be held tomorrow in Abuja, the spokesman said.
Also in Abuja, the Nigerian Government will host a meeting on Thursday between ECOWAS, Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the Sierra Leonean Government and the UN.
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