Troops to move beyond Monrovia

By Mark Doyle
BBC World Affairs correspondent in Monrovia

West African peacekeepers are preparing to deploy outside the Liberian capital Monrovia for the first
time on Saturday, having secured the city.
The deployment follows appeals by aid agencies for more security outside the capital.

Last week, some 50,000 war-displaced people fled shooting in a mass spontaneous movement near the
town of Totota, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Monrovia.
About 600 West African peacekeepers - from the former Portuguese colony of Guinea Bissau -
assembled at Monrovia airport on Saturday ready to move in convoy into the Liberian countryside.
They are part of a West African force which, in the coming months with the arrival of more troops, will be
transformed into the largest United Nations peacekeeping force in the world with some 15,000 troops.
Dangerous mission
The soldiers are due to pass through countryside that has seen some of the worst fighting in the Liberian
war.
There are numerous militia checkpoints ahead of them. Although all the factions in the war have signed a
ceasefire, it is still a dangerous mission.

If the deployment takes place, it will be a major success story for the various international actors helping
Liberia.
West African soldiers are in the vanguard, but the Americans have supplied much of the money and the
logistics.
Aid workers will be pleased that their call for deployment was responded to - but most of all, many rural
Liberians will be mightily relieved that foreign military assistance has finally arrived.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3086182.stm