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Conflict Prevention and Conflict Resolution in the African Context: Peacekeeping in Liberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Tafsir Malick N’Diaye
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Extract

The West African force known as the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) was sent to Liberia by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). A closer look at the Force shows that it is an adaptation of the peacekeeping system used by the United Nations. What started as a system of collective security based on the regional security mechanism of ECOWAS turned into a standard peacekeeping operation as a result of “the Yamoussoukro process.”

Type
FOCUS: Toward a New African Political Order: African Perspectives on Democratization Processes, Regional Conflict Management
Information
African Issues , Volume 21 , Issue 1-2 , 1993 , pp. 70 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1993

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References

Notes

1. See ECOWAS Protocol relating to mutual assistance on defense, of 29 May 1981, Articles 2 and 3.

2. The appropriate measures referred to are provided for in Article 18 of the Protocol, which in turn refers to Articles 6, 9 and 16.

3. Article 6 (4).

4. In addition, Article 9 reads as follows: “In case of armed intervention, the Defense Council assisted by the Defense Commission shall supervise with the authority of the State or States concerned, all measures to be taken by the Force Commander and ensure that all necessary means for the intervention are made available to him. The actions of the Force Commander shall be subject to competent political authority of the Member State or States concerned.”

5. The timetable was as follows: April 30, 1992: ECOMOG operations begin; May 6, 1992: ECOMOG pulls back from the buffer zone along the frontier between Liberia and Sierra Leone; May 11, 1992: ECOMOG ensures the security of all ports, including Buchanan, Greenville and Harper; May 14, 1992: ECOMOG ensures the security of all airports and landing strips; May 16, 1992: Road barriers set up by all factions are dismantled; May 18, 1992: Confinement/disarming of all belligerent factions begins in all designated localities, in conjunction with the simultaneous registration of personnel, weapons and munitions and the storing and warehousing of weapons in the designated centers; May 20, 1992: ECOMOG verification patrols begin; June 1, 1992: Only ECOMOG and Charles Taylor’s security company will have the right to bear arms after this date; June 2, 1992: Completion of confinement/disarming of all factions and of registration and storing of all weapons. (See the annex to the summary record of the Geneva meeting, pp. 1-2.)

6. Review statement at the Dakar Summit. See the Senegalese daily newspaper, Le Soleil of July 28, 1992, p. 4.

7. See especially the so-called OAU/Kampala document in document CM/1659 (LVI)/Add.l; document CM/1711 (LVI) on the Dakar Summit Meeting from 22 to 27 June 1992; and document CM/1710 (LVI) containing the “Report of the Secretary-General on the conflicts in Africa: proposals for the creation of a mechanism for the prevention and settlement of conflict.”