About 800 Nigeria's Peacekeeping Troops to Leave for Liberia

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 03, 2003

About 800 Nigeria's Peacekeeping Troops to Leave for Liberia

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About 800 Nigerian peacekeeping troops which helped end 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone will leave for Liberia on Monday to help police a ceasefire in the war-torn West African country, a Nigerian army spokesman said here Saturday.

"We have been directed to prepare our troops for deployment andsome 776 soldiers will leave Sierra Leone on Monday," said Emeka Onwuamaegbu, director of the Nigerian Army Public Relations.

The 776 soldiers are scheduled to return home later this month after completing their peace mission in Sierra Leone where a 10-year civil war claiming over 200,000 livers ended in January 2002.

"This is the first batch of the two battalions" as vanguard of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peacekeeping troops Nigeria had promised to send to Liberia to end a 14-year bloody civil war, said the army spokesman.

But he did not tell the reporters when the second batch of the 1,500 peacekeeping soldiers would be moved into Liberia.

The first wave of 300 Nigerian peacekeepers are reportedly due to arrive in Liberia's capital Monrovia on Monday.

Nigeria, the strongest powerhouse in West Africa, is the main military to take charge peacekeeping mission in the sub-region.

In addition, Nigeria has also promised to offer asylum to the embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor who agreed to step down as peacekeeping force arrives in Liberia.

The civil war over the past decade has made Liberia among the most miserable places in the world and the latest unrest since 1998 has forced some 300,000 Liberians to flee to neighboring countries and claimed thousands more lives.

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