The News Review:

- Liberian Rebels Tell Troops to Cease Fire
- Dilemma over troops to Liberia
- United States Contributes to Sierra Leone.
- Nigerian troops will lead peace effort

Liberian Rebels Tell Troops to Cease Fire
FOXNews – Jul 23, 2003
Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu said. Foreign ministers were also there. One option, he said, was to divert to Liberia some 700 to 1,000 Nigerian troops from Sierra Leone, where the soldiers have taken part in a U. peacekeeping force. Nigeria, Mali and Ghana are willing to contribute troops, but need foreign financial backing, Nigerian presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said. The participants also want other countries — including South Africa, Morocco and the United States — to send soldiers.

Dilemma over troops to Liberia
Christian Science Monitor – Jul 23, 2003
5 billion from Nigeria alone. )Peacekeeping force: ECOMOG, the ECOWAS Monitoring Group, was first deployed in 1990 to halt factional fighting in Liberia. It has since conducted intervention or peacekeeping in Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and Ivory Coast. It is not a standing army; troops are donated by member countries for specific missions. Source: US Government. Bush debates whether to send troops to Liberia, military officials from ECOWAS met Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss sending in a West African peacekeeper force… Nigeria’s large oil sector provides the financial means to maintain the region’s only substantial air and naval forces. One option, said Nigerian Army Col. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu, was to divert from Sierra Leone to Liberia’s capital a Nigerian infantry battalion of some 700 to 1,000 troops. The soldiers are part of a UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone. Whatever the composition of any Liberia peacekeeping force, deployment amid the current chaos is likely to be dangerous, as shown on Monday when mortar fire rippled through Monrovia near the US Embassy. Rebels appear to have decided that now is their chance to depose Charles Taylor by force. The Bush administration had made Taylor’s departure a precondition of sending in US troops, and his evident ambivalence about leaving has contributed to the White House’s hesitation to get involved in the situation.

United States Contributes to Sierra Leone.
Free with registration – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jul 23, 2003
United States Contributes to Sierra Leone. (23-JUL-03) Asia Africa Intelligence Wire.

Nigerian troops will lead peace effort
Washington Times – Jul 23, 2003
The ECOWAS decision on an initial contingent came after a two-day meeting in Dakar, Senegal, which was also attended by State Department and Pentagon officials. “In view of the gravity of the situation in Liberia, we have decided to deploy two Nigerian battalions urgently to this country,” said Mohamed ibn Chambas, the ECOWAS executive secretary. “The first battalion will come directly from Nigeria, and the second will leave from Sierra Leone,” he said. The White House has been waiting for the countries in the region to deploy a limited force before it makes a decision on exactly how it can help. Another condition for sending U. troops is the departure of Liberian President Charles Taylor, who said yesterday that he will go into exile in Nigeria on Aug.