Mediators struggling to broker a ceasefire deal between Liberia's warring factions said they had won pledges from all sides that a formal accord would be signed yesterday.
The mediators at peace talks in Ghana have been working for more than 10 days to get President Charles Taylor's government delegation and two rebel factions to sign a truce, ending fighting in one of West Africa's bloodiest battlefields.
They hope that a ceasefire would pave the way for full-blown political discussions and also the deployment of peacekeepers.
"We have the commitment from all parties that they will sign tomorrow," Sunny Ugoh of the West African mediation team told reporters late on Monday as the talks were suspended for the night.
Liberia was founded as a haven for freed American slaves, but 14 years of almost non-stop war coupled with Taylor's role as mastermind of the region's web-like conflicts has reduced the country to a pariah state of battle-hardened young fighters.
It was still unclear on Monday what would be Taylor's role in any transition process. The main rebel faction LURD says it wants the ceasefire deal to include a clause giving the Liberian president, indicted this month by a UN-backed war crimes court, no more than 30 days to quit after a truce is signed.
Taylor, who was elected president in 1997 after emerging victorious from a seven-year civil war that cost 200,000 lives, has said he is prepared to step down at the end of his term next January.
He wants Sierra Leone's war crimes court to drop the indictment against him, something the court's US prosecutor seems unlikely to do.
Mediators appear reluctant to pencil in a precise timeframe for Taylor's possible departure in the ceasefire accord, preferring to leave that to future political negotiations.
The talks in Ghana were also overshadowed on Monday by rebel claims that Taylor's forces attacked them on several fronts. Military sources said the rebels had struck first and government troops were only defending their positions.
LURD launched its uprising against Taylor in 2000, from bases in northern Liberia with the help of Guinea. Another rebel faction known as Model burst into life in the southeast in April and seized a string of ports.
Between them the two groups, which diplomats say are closely linked, control two thirds of Liberia. The talks have been adjourned several times and previous promises of a deal have failed to materialize.
Yet they are the only hope left for exhausted Liberians, especially residents of the capital Monrovia who have crowded into schools and a stadium since LURD attacked in the wake of Taylor's indictment on June 4.
Rebel forces have since been driven back, and both sides are supposed to have agreed a cessation of hostilities.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS