S Leone 'has a new image'

2007-12-05 15:19

Freetown - The United Nations peace consolidation office in Sierra Leone, a successor to what was once the world's largest peacekeeping force, will end its mission in the war-scarred country next year, it has been announced.

Victor Angelo, said the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL), would end in 2008 after a successful transition from a savage conflict.

Angelo said: "Sierra Leone now has a new image. This is now a country considered by the international community as a model in Africa with particular reference to the task of good governance."

The West African country of 5.5 million people endured a decade-long civil war from 1991-2001 in which at least 120 000 people were killed and thousands were mutilated.

Three months ago, the country held democratic elections, the first since UN troops withdrew, and an opposition leadership was ushered into office.

He added: "The word crisis is no longer associated with events in Sierra Leone."

Angelo said the UN would not completely pull out of the country, but "some other structure will likely be put in place when the mandate ends".

It had at its height in 2001, the world's largest peacekeeping operation with 17 500 officers were in Sierra Leone.

The UN Security Council in 2005 judged conditions in Sierra Leone to have improved sufficiently to end the UN peacekeeping mission mandate there.

- AFP