¡¡ Nigeria is to withdraw its troops from Sierra Leone within the year in a phased transfer of its responsibility to the United Nations, Nigerian Defense Minister Theophilus Danjuma said on October 22 in Lagos.

¡¡ The huge financial costs of maintaining the Nigerian-led west African peace-keeping force ECOMOG will soon cease as it will be passed over to the UN, Danjuma said.

¡¡ To maintain its operation in Sierra Leone, Nigeria reportedly spends about one million US dollars a day, the Guardian newspapers reported Saturday.

¡¡ The minister said that "while Nigeria will not prematurely abandon Sierra Leone, arrangements are at an advanced stage to hand over the ECOMOG operations in that country to the United Nations so that our forces can be withdrawn."