Share & more
A seven-person UN assessment mission sent to Sierra Leone at the request of the Secretary-General has been meeting with UN officials and government representatives, a UN official told IRIN on Monday. The team will be reporting to UN headquarters on what needs to be done "to ensure that the peacekeeping operation can effectively discharge its duties", the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Oluyemi Adeniji, told reporters on Friday.
Following a recent summit of West African leaders in Abuja, Nigeria, an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) six-member technical team is expected to arrive in Freetown this week to examine the situation before ECOWAS sets a ceasefire date, Adeniji reported.
Adeniji said that West African leaders were committed to ensuring that the warring sides returned to their pre-Lome Peace Agreement positions and "that no group profits from the outbreak of hostilities".
During their recent talks ECOWAS leaders also agreed to launch an inquiry into the illegal diamond trade in Sierra Leone. No date has yet been fixed for the start of the investigation, ECOWAS Director of Information Adrienne Diop told IRIN on Monday.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions