ECOMOG to form bulk of force

ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN on Monday that the new UN force will include four ECOMOG battalions, some 4,000 soldiers. Three battalions (minus one company from Guinea) are from Nigeria and one battalion from Ghana, approximately a third of the existing ECOMOG forces currently in Sierra Leone. "As soon as the UN force is officially proclaimed, the ECOMOG soldiers will join it," Olukolade said. Nigeria, along with Ghana and Guinea, has had soldiers in Sierra Leone for several years as part of the West African Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) defending the democratically elected government against rebels. Some ECOMOG forces will probably stay in Sierra Leone for some months to to ensure security although the exact number is not clear, the BBC reported.