Global Policy Forum

UN peacekeeping troops have handed over primary responsibility for security in Freetown to Sierra Leone government forces as they continue their withdrawal from frontline activities in the West African country. The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) began handing over control of security in the interior of the country to the government police and army last April. It completed the process on Thursday by handing over control of the country's Western Area, which includes the capital Freetown.

Major General Sajjad Akram, the UNAMSIL force commander, said Sierra Leone government forces would take over primary responsibility for security for a trial period of two months and if all went well, they would take full control on 26 November. "We are giving the security services the lead so that when UNAMSIL leaves those charged with responsibility for Sierra Leone's security will have proven that they are up to the task," Akram said in a speech at the handover ceremony.

UNAMSIL was created five years ago to help restore peace in Sierra Leone after a bitter civil war which lasted from 1999 to 2001. At its height, UNAMSIL had 17,000 troops and was the biggest UN peacekeeping operation in the world. However numbers have since fallen to around 8,000 and the force strength is due to tumble further to 3,500 by the end of this year. UNAMSIL will remain at that strength, with a rapid intervention capacity, until its current mandate runs out on 30 June 2005.

Although UN peacekeepers were originally due to withdraw from Sierra Leone at the end of 2004, the UN Security Council decided earlier this year to extend UNAMSIL's mandate for a further six months in view of continuing concerns over the security situation in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea.

Sierra Leone's police commissioner for the Western Area, Santigie Ibrahim Sahid Koroma, said his men were "well prepared for the task" of assuming responsibility for security in the capital. He noted that the number of mobile armed response vehicles in Freetown had been increased from six to 14 and warned that armed robbers could expect little mercy from the police. "If they venture out, their death will be categorised as death by misadventure," he told IRIN.

Social worker Brima Bangura welcomed the fact that Sierra Leone's own forces were now taking over responsibility for security. "For too long now we have been depending on foreigners to do everything for us," he said. "It is high time now that we take the destiny of our country into our own hands."

But while the police force has been beefed up and is now better paid than the army, some Sierra Leoneans still distrust the military establishment. John Kamara, a secondary school teacher, said: "the same soldiers who mutinied and amputated people's arms are still in the military. How will I trust them not to repeat their acts when they were not punished?"

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