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UN hopes to speed up deployments

What is important in Sierra Leone is “to consolidate the (UN) force, bring the force up to strength as quickly as possible and continue our efforts to tame Sierra Leone,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told journalists in New York on Tuesday, his spokesman, Fred Eckhard said.

About 8,300 of the 11,000 peacekeepers are already in the country and, Eckhard said, “the United States has offered to provide logistical support to the Bangladesh battalion, which has said that its troops are being readied.”

Battalions from Jordan and India “have also announced their readiness to deploy faster than originally planned,” Eckhard said.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, Bernard Miyet, arrived on Monday night in Freetown and went to visit Guinean and Ghanaian troops. Echkard said Miyet went there “to demonstrate the will that we have to keep the peace process on track”.


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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