Decision soon on Irish troops to Liberia

A decision will be made in the coming days on whether 250 Irish troops will serve on a UN peacekeeping mission to Liberia.

Discussions have been taking place between the UN, Department of Foreign Affairs officials in New York and other UN member-states over who will take part in the multinational mission.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the matter would have to be resolved by the UN's Security Council before a final decision was made.

Department of Defence officials say between 200 and 250 troops could be released to serve on the mission.

Just 120 Irish troops are serving overseas at present, compared to 600 two years ago, due largely to the withdrawal of soldiers from the Lebanon. The most recent African peacekeeping mission involving Irish troops was in Eritrea, where about 200 troops served over a period of two years.

Irish soldiers have also been serving as observers in other African states, such as the Ivory Coast and the Congo. A number of other UN member-states have expressed interest in taking part in a peacekeeping operation in Liberia, including South Africa and Namibia.

The path for a UN mission was cleared after Liberian rebels officially handed over the port in the capital Monrovia to a Nigerian-led peacekeeping force this week, backed up by US marines.

Violence flared in the capital over a month ago when rebels seized the port. They launched a series of attacks on the city, in which at least 2,000 people died, while hundreds of thousands fled their homes.

The first ship carrying UN food aid to the capital after weeks of fighting docked yesterday, and aid workers are preparing to feed thousands of famished people. Three larger ships are due to arrive next week carrying tonnes of food, according to UN officials.

Mr Justin Bagirishya, country director of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), said: "Along with emergency food rations for thousands of the most vulnerable people in Monrovia, the equipment on board will allow WFP to resume full-scale distributions far more rapidly."

Desperate for food, tens of thousands of civilians broke through barricades on Monrovia's front-line bridges yesterday, reuniting the war-divided capital after weeks of war.