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Liberia to get 15,000 UN troops The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved a force of up to 15,000 peacekeepers for Liberia. Liberia as a whole remains highly unstable The resolution, proposed by the United States, sets up a UN mission in Liberia to monitor last month's peace agreement between the government and rebels. The main task of the force will be to restore security and to devise a plan to disarm more than 30,000 militiamen, including child soldiers, who are still active in the countryside. In August, Liberia's two main rebel groups signed a power-sharing deal with the...

19 September – The United Nations Security Council today unanimously approved the establishment of a new mission for war-shattered Liberia consisting of up to 15,000 military personnel and up to 1,115 civilian police officers, embarking on a new peacekeeping operation in a country that has been torn by 12 years of conflict. The mission - the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) - is for an initial 12 months, and is set to take over authority from the UN-authorized West African-led multinational force currently keeping the peace on 1 October. UNMIL's mandate includes monitoring implementation of the ceasefire agreed between...

ABIDJAN, 16 Sep 2003 (IRIN) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday asked the Security Council to authorize the deployment of 15,000 peacekeeping troops and 875 police officers to war-ravaged Liberia, as part of an enlarged UN mission to the West African country. He said in a report to the Security Council that the mission, to be known as UNMIL, would support the Transitional Government headed by businessman Gyude Bryant, which is due to take office on 14 October, and help it to extend state authority throughout Liberia. Bryant was chosen by a Liberian peace conference last month...

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks September 4, 2003 Posted to the web September 4, 2003 Tens of thousands of frightened civilians continued to flee on foot from a fresh outbreak of fighting aroung the town of Totota in central Liberia on Thursday. Relief workers said that over the past three days about 60,000 had fled on foot from Totota to Salala, 20 km further south along the main road to the capital Monrovia. There they had crowded in an existing camp for people displaced by Liberia's 14-year-old civil war, tripling its population from 30,000 to 90,000 in just 48 hours....

CRAWFORD, Texas Aug. 5 — President Bush has authorized a small contingent of U.S. troops to enter Liberia to provide logistical support for West African peacekeeping forces in the war-ravaged country, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Bush approved the contingent of six-10 U.S. troops Tuesday morning, at his ranch. The troops could enter Liberia as early as Wednesday, the official said, and the team could grow to as large as 20 in coming days. A defense official in Washington, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the deployment, but...

U.S. Marines may soon go ashore in Liberia. A senior government official, who doesn't want to be identified, said there is a probability that Marines will be sent in to assist. They are currently on warships off the Liberian coast. Peacekeepers from other African countries began arriving in Liberia Monday and are setting up defenses at the main airport. Officers said they won't move into Monrovia until more troops arrive. Liberian President Charles Taylor has promised to step down, but only when enough peacekeepers arrive, and after a war crimes indictment against him is dropped. Copyright 2003 Associated Press,...

MONROVIA - Liberia's president appears to be backing away from a promise to leave his war-battered country and take up asylum in Nigeria. Charles Taylor agreed to quit his post next Monday in a bid to end fighting between government forces and rebel groups. But on Tuesday, a Nigerian official said Taylor is now demanding that a war crimes court in neighbouring Sierra Leone drop charges against him before he leaves the country. Taylor's latest demand comes just a day after the first contingent of West African troops arrived in Liberia to oversee his departure. Nigerian soldiers arrived by...