President warns of wider conflict

President Charles Taylor said on Tuesday that if West African leaders became complacent about the war in Lofa County, northern Liberia, the entire region could be endangered, the Liberian Ministry of Information reported. “We cannot be trying to solve the crisis in Sierra Leone while others are trying to support a new war in Liberia,” he said, referring to reports that Liberian troops had seized British-made ammunition from anti-government forces in Lofa. Taylor told the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, that he would present the evidence to the UN Security Council. Adeniji was in Monrovia to discuss the Sierra Leonean peace process and the fighting in Lofa. Taylor said the British presence in West Africa would “continue to threaten” Liberia. He also said the dissidents were backed by Sierra Leonean Kamajor militiamen and Guinean nationals trained by the US military. British military instructors have been training regular Sierra Leonean troops.