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UN Mission to look into US Embassy shooting

A UN fact-finding team is to visit Liberia soon to gather information on a shooting incident in Monrovia on 18 and 19 September 1998 that affected the US Embassy, UN sources said. The five-member group led by James Ngobi, a former director of the Africa 1 Division at UN Headquarters, is due in Monrovia on Sunday and complete its mission on 22 May. The team, sent in response to a request by Liberia, left New York last weekend for Nigeria for "contacts with individuals who now reside in Nigeria and who were involved in the 18-19 September incidents," one source told IRIN. On 18 September 1998, a gun battle erupted in Monrovia between Liberian government security forces and supporters of former faction leader Roosevelt Johnson. He and some of his group then fled to the US Embassy, where they sought refuge. The US and Nigerian government later flew Johnson to Nigeria under protective custody.

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

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