UN peacekeepers extend reach towards Ivorian border

United Nations peacekeepers extended their reach in Liberia on Tuesday, for the first time taking up positions in Maryland County near the Ivorian border, UN officials confirmed. Their deployment leaves only one of the West African nation's 15 counties without a UN peacekeeping presence. An advance party of 160 Senegalese peacekeepers were airlifted into the port city of Harper, the main city in Maryland County, which lies more than 700 km southeast of the Liberian capital Monrovia. Harper is a key base for the former rebel Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). "A large portion of the Ivorian border has already been secured. This is the final stage of ensuring that the borders with Liberia are secured from the north to the south," General Daniel Opande, the UN's force commander told IRIN. One of the Senegalese commanders said that 300 more soldiers would be joining their comrades in the next few days. Opande said Grand Kru County was the one remaining region without UN peacekeepers, but that that would change next month. "We are going to deploy Ethiopian troops in July," the force commander said. Liberia is emerging from the shadow of a 14-year civil war that ended last year. Earlier this month the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said 42,755 combatants had given up their weapons since the launch of the disarmament program last December. The process will be boosted with three new disarmament centres opening up in Liberia’s border regions and will operate alongside four existing sites around the country. "We now have plans to open additional disarmament sites in Zwedru, Ganta and Lofa within the next few weeks. I can not give you the exact dates of their opening, but we believe it will be done as soon as possible," Opande said. Zwedru is the provincial headquarters of Grand Gedeh near the Ivorian border; Ganta in Nimba County lies on the border with Guinea; and Lofa County is close to both Guinea and Sierra Leone.