Search
  1. Home
  2. Africa
  3. West Africa

Seven states to send troops to Sierra Leone

    ABIDJAN

    Defence officials of seven West African states agreed on Thursday to send 3,000 troops to help end the conflict in Sierra Leone, ECOWAS Director of Information Adrienne Diop told IRIN.

    The pledge came at the end of a two-day meeting of defence ministers and chiefs of military staff from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

    Diop said each unit of a contributing country would try to meet its own logistics and equipment needs, but “they will still need help from the UN and international community”. She declined to name the states that have promised troops until their heads of state authorise the planned deployment.

    An eight-year rebel war had ended in Sierra Leone in July 1999, when the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) signed a peace agreement in Lome, Togo.

    UN troops were subsequently sent to replace a mainly-Nigerian ECOWAS peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, but as the West African peacekeepers departed at the start of May, the RUF began attacking and detaining members of the UN force.

    Many UN troops are still being detained by the rebels.

    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

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join