The News Review:

- Sierra Leone and Connecticut: The Connection Continues to Grow
- Sierra Leone and Connecticut: The Connection Continues to Grow
- COTE D’IVOIRE: UN sends peacekeepers, but disarmament on hold

Sierra Leone and Connecticut: The Connection Continues to Grow
New York Times – Feb 29, 2004
In December nine people from groups including Amistad America and the Amistad Committee of New Haven, Mystic Seaport, the First Church of Christ Congregational in Farmington and the Connecticut Woodturners, made their fifth trip to Sierra Leone. They met with President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, his government ministers and villagers to discuss the various efforts, most of which are already under way.

Sierra Leone and Connecticut: The Connection Continues to Grow
nytimes.com – Feb 29, 2004
In December nine people from groups including Amistad America and the Amistad Committee of New Haven, Mystic Seaport, the First Church of Christ Congregational in Farmington and the Connecticut Woodturners, made their fifth trip to Sierra Leone. They met with President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, his government ministers and villagers to discuss the various efforts, most of which are already under way.

COTE D’IVOIRE: UN sends peacekeepers, but disarmament on hold
IRINnews.org – Feb 29, 2004
âThey must not be allowed to succeed. âCote dâIvoire is the third country in West Africa in which the United Nations has seen the need to establish a large peace-keeping operation to heal the wounds of civil war. There are still more than 10,000 UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, which emerged from a brutal 10-year civil war in 2001. And 15,000 blue helmets are being deployed in Liberia to enforce a peace agreement last August that ended 14 years of near constant civil war in the country. The Sierra Leone peacekeeping force is due to be phased out by the end of this year, but UN officials are increasingly concerned about the need to retain a longer term UN military presence in the country, particularly in view of the potentially unstable situation in neighbouring Guinea. The possibility that unemployed gunmen from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote dâIvoire may drift into eastern Guinea to cause trouble was the main focus of two meetings of top UN officials in West Africa that took place in the Senegalese capital Dakar during late February. Annan told the Security Council on Friday that he would put forward proposals for a âresidual UN presence in Sierra Leoneâ stretching into 2005 in his next report on the country later this month…
There are still more than 10,000 UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, which emerged from a brutal 10-year civil war in 2001. And 15,000 blue helmets are being deployed in Liberia to enforce a peace agreement last August that ended 14 years of near constant civil war in the country. The Sierra Leone peacekeeping force is due to be phased out by the end of this year, but UN officials are increasingly concerned about the need to retain a longer term UN military presence in the country, particularly in view of the potentially unstable situation in neighbouring Guinea. The possibility that unemployed gunmen from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote dâIvoire may drift into eastern Guinea to cause trouble was the main focus of two meetings of top UN officials in West Africa that took place in the Senegalese capital Dakar during late February. Annan told the Security Council on Friday that he would put forward proposals for a âresidual UN presence in Sierra Leoneâ stretching into 2005 in his next report on the country later this month. West African governments, UN officials and western donors are all agreed on the need for a regional approach to defuse conflict in West Africa, since civil war in one country has tended to destabilise its neighbours. Cote dâIvoire, which once boasted of being the most stable and prosperous country in West Africa, plunged into civil war in September 2002.