UN troops start leaving

Several hundred soldiers serving in the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) have concluded their tour of duty and were expected to leave the West African country this weekend.

UNAMSIL officials told IRIN that the departing troops were among 600 who would leave by the end of the year under a downsizing arrangement agreed by the Security Council in September. Up to 4,500 of the 17,000 UNAMSIL troops in Sierra Leone are expected to leave by 31 May, 2003.

The UNAMSIL force commander, Lt. Gen. Daniel Opande, on Wednesday visited several battalions in the western district of Port Loko to bid farewell to the troops, UNAMSIL reported on Thursday. The troops he visited included a Bangladeshi artillery battalion and a Kenyan battalion.

UNAMSIL had also reported last week that a Nigerian battalion in the capital, Freetown, was leaving. On 23 October, the departing Nigerians visited the Aberdeen Amputee camp in Freetown and donated food and other items as a farewell gesture, the mission said.

In September UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed that the mandate of UNAMSIL, which was due to expire on 30 September, be extended by six months and the force gradually downsized before an eventual handover of security and other responsibilities to the Sierra Leone government.

"The beginning of the drawdown of UNAMSIL will take the mission into the final phase of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone," Annan had said.

He recommended that the force be reduced to about 5,000 troops by late 2004, and later to 2,000 "depending on need at that time". The Security Council adopted his proposals.