ECOMOG to start phased withdrawal later this year

The Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, will begin a phased withdrawal from Sierra Leone later this year, Nigeria's chief of defence staff, Air Marshal Al-Amin Daggash told a one-day meeting of regional chiefs of staff.

"As we look to the future," he said in a television broadcast monitored by the BBC, "we must build on planning, training, and developing the Armed Forces of Sierra Leone with a view to replacing the ECOMOG troops later in the year, when our phased withdrawal will have no alternative but to commence."

Daggash who chaired the meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja, recalled that Nigeria with 11,000 soldiers involved in the operation, was not only the major contributor of men and materiel, but that it also bore much of the financial burden.

ECOMOG was set up in 1990 by ECOWAS and relocated to Freetown after the seven year civil war in Liberia. Other nations involved in the Sierra Leone operation are Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.

The broadcast quoted the ECOWAS executive secretary, Lansana Kouyate, as saying the international community had to help ECOMOG meet the logistical requirements of the peacekeeping force. He reiterated a warning by ECOMOG earlier in the week that it would only be able to contain the crisis in Sierra Leone with an additional 5,000 troops.