Liberia's government and rebels were close to signing a peace deal yesterday that would set up an interim administration designed to halt a 14-year spiral of violence, officials said.
After drawn-out talks in Ghana's capital Accra, the main rebel group LURD dropped its demand for the number two post in the new government due to take power in mid-October.
PHOTO: AFP
The mediators said there were still some points to be agreed, including the exact process of appointing top officials and the size of the parliament, before a final draft agreement could be drawn up.
They have said members of the warring factions would not be eligible for the top four posts in the interim administration, but the rebel groups were trying to get the rules relaxed to allow them to nominate candidates for the top two jobs in parliament.
"We are expecting the signing of an agreement [today], either by part or all of the delegates, but I think an agreement will be signed by all parties," Ahmedou ould Abdallah, UN special representative for West Africa, said on Sunday.
The mediators had hoped that the signing ceremony would take place yesterday, once the draft agreement had been circulated among delegates from the government, rebel groups, political parties and civil society groups.
The interim government will replace the current administration led by new President Moses Blah, in power since warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor quit under international pressure last week and went into exile in Nigeria.
Since Taylor launched a rebellion in 1989, Liberia has seen little but violence and has been the epicentre of a regional cycle of bloodshed in which 250,000 people have been killed.
Taylor was elected president in 1997 elections that were called to end a bloody civil war, but it was not long before new rebel factions emerged to fight him.
More than 1,000 Nigerian-led regional peacekeepers backed by US Marines are in the process of securing Liberia's shattered capital Monrovia, split in two for weeks by the fighting.
Aid organizations, some of whom lost stocks of food and other supplies in an orgy of looting in Monrovia, are trying to help hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the city.
Justin Bagirishya of the UN's World Food Program said that of 10,000 tonnes of food aid at the port, only 4,300 tonnes were left after looting by fighters and hungry crowds.
The rebels and the government agreed on Sunday to allow aid workers access to all areas and to guarantee their safety but Ross Mountain, UN special coordinator for humanitarian affairs, said security remained the prime concern.
"One is tempted to be upbeat and positive about the latest breaking developments," Mountain said.
"Unfortunately, the situation on the ground is still very fragile and from this perspective there is certainly no room for complacency," he said.
Besides Monrovia, people needed help across the country -- from the second city Buchanan, scene of fierce fighting in July, to northern Lofa County where LURD launched its rebellion in 2000, severing most foreign aid to the area, Mountain said.
‘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
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS