Monrovia asked to help prevent cross-border attacks

The force commander of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Lt-Gen Daniel Opande, has asked the Liberian government to monitor its side of the border to prevent cross-border attacks against Sierra Leonean villages, the UN said in a statement on Wednesday.

At a meeting with Liberia's Defence Minister, Daniel Chea on Tuesday, Opande stressed that the UN was doing everything in its power, in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Armed Forces, to police the Sierra Leonean side of the border, the UN statement said.

He requested the same from the Liberian authorities, emphasising that "peace in one of the Mano River Union countries without peace in others is no peace at all".

Opande toured several Sierra Leonean border towns to assess the security impact of a current influx of Liberian refugees. He also spoke to some of the refugees, who said they had fled their homes when the Armed Forces of Liberia warned of impending attacks by rebels, the statement said.

The refugees also said Liberian troops were demanding money from them before allowing transit through a border area into Sierra Leone.

Opande later visited that area, known as the Dar-es-Salaam crossing point, where refugees corroborated the allegations of extortion and harassment by Liberian troops, the statement added.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an average of slightly more than 100 refugees are crossing the border from Liberia into Sierra Leone daily.