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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Gambians arrive as peacekeepers prepare to extend control
MONROVIA, 2 September 2003 (IRIN) - Crowds of cheering Liberians lined the roadside in pouring rain on Monday to welcome a convoy of military trucks ferrying 150 Gambian peacekeeping troops from Roberts international airport into the capital Monrovia.
The Gambians were the latest West African soldiers to arrive to reinforce 1,550 Nigerian troops who have been trying to enforce a ceasefire between the government and two rebel movements since August 4.
Last week, 250 soldiers from Mali and 250 from Senegal flew in, giving the multinational force the potential to extend its control from Monrovia to the rebel-held port of Buchanan, 120 km to the southeast, and Kakata, 45 km north of the capital.
Exploratory patrols have already been sent to both towns and military sources said the peacekeepers would establish a permanent presence in both very soon.
Major Ogun Sanya, a spokesman for the West African peacekeeping force, said on Tuesday that more troops from Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and Togo were expected in the coming days.
“We are expecting Guinea-Bissau anytime from today,” he told IRIN.
The West African force, known as ECOMIL, will eventually number 3,250 men. It is due to receive a UN mandate in October, after which thousands more peacekeeping troops from other parts of the world are expected to arrive.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said during a brief visit to Liberia on Monday that at least 15,000 more soldiers were needed to ensure a lasting peace after 14 years of near constant civil war.
Jacques Klein, the UN special envoy to Liberia, has also called for a force of this size.
ECOMIL began to deploy in Monrovia shortly before former Liberian president Charles Taylor stepped down and left for exile in Nigeria on 11 August.
His successor, Moses Blah, signed a peace agreement with the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) rebel movements a week later.
Urging the international community to send more peacekeepers to Liberia, Obasanjo said on Monday: “We have to ensure that the peacekeeping force, which the West African sub-region has provided and which is grossly inadequate, will be beefed up by the international community so that that peace will reign."
Obasanjo, a former army general who was elected president of Nigeria in 1999, told his men they would remain in Liberia until a sustainable peace is achieved.
“During our first mission here, Nigeria lost over 1,000 men and spent US $12 billion. Your mission here in Liberia is to complete the unfinished task,” he said.
Nigeria contributed more than 7,000 troops to the first West African peacekeeping force in Liberia that remained in the country from 1990 to 1998. It enabled elections to be held in 1997 that were won by Taylor with 80 percent of the vote. However the civil war resumed soon after the peacekeepers withdrew.
Obasanjo was wildly cheered by crowds of enthusiastic Liberians as he walked the streets of Monrovia, a devastated city of more than one million people.
Blah, who will hand over power to a broad-based transitional government on 14 October, told the Nigerian leader that he was disheartened by the continuation of sporadic clashes between government and rebel fighters in the interior.
“As far as this government is concerned the war is over and we have nothing to fight for," he said in a speech.
Skirmishes last week between LURD and government troops near Gbatala, 130 km north of Monrovia, prompted at least 12,000 civilians to flee towards the capital, relief workers said.
The United Nations estimates that about 500,000 people - one in six of Liberia's three million inhabitants - have been displaced from their homes by fighting. About 300,000 of them have sought refuge in Monrovia.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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