17 septembre 2015 – source ONU

Le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU a adopté jeudi une résolution prorogeant le mandat de la Mission des Nations Unies au Libéria (MINUL) jusqu'au 30 septembre 2016, y compris en matière de protection des civils, de soutien à la réforme judiciaire et des forces de sécurité du pays, de promotion des droits de l'homme et de protection du personnel des Nations Unies.

Dans ce texte, les membres du Conseil demandent également au gouvernement libérien et à la MINUL d'intensifier leurs efforts en vue d'une rétrocession aux autorités nationales des compétences en matière de sécurité actuellement exercées par la Mission.

Le Conseil espère que le gouvernement libérien assumera pleinement l'ensemble de ses compétences au plus tard d'ici le 30 juin 2016, date fixée pour la fin de la transition en matière de sécurité.

Dans cette perspective, le Conseil décide de ramener de 3.590 à 1.240 personnes l'effectif militaire et de 1.515 à 606 personnes l'effectif de police de la MINUL, d'ici au 30 juin 2016.

Le Conseil des 15 membres affirme en outre son intention d'envisager d'ici au 15 décembre 2016 un éventuel retrait de la MINUL et le passage à une présence des Nations Unies permettant de continuer d'aider le gouvernement libérien à consolider la paix.

A cet égard, les membres du Conseil prient le Secrétaire général de l'ONU, Ban Ki-moon, d'organiser une mission d'évaluation au Libéria en vue de formuler des recommandations d'ici le 15 novembre 2016 au sujet d'un possible retrait de la Mission.

27 February 2015 defenceWeb (Reuters)

The United States military officially ended a mission to build treatment facilities to combat an Ebola outbreak in Liberia on Thursday, months earlier than expected, in the latest indication that a year-long epidemic in West Africa is waning.

Washington launched the mission five months ago and the force peaked at over 2,800 troops at a time when Liberia was at the epicentre of the worst Ebola epidemic on record.

Nearly 10,000 people have died in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea over the past year. More than 4,000 of those deaths were in Liberia, but the number of new cases has plummeted in recent months, leaving many treatment centres empty and the mission has already begun winding down.

"While our large scale military mission is ending...the fight to get to zero cases will continue and the (Joint Force Command) has ensured capabilities were brought that will be sustained in the future," said U.S. Army Major General Gary Volesky.

The troops were deployed to support the international Ebola response mission led by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The operation was initially expected to last between nine and 12 months, said Volesky, the mission's commander.

Speaking to lawmakers during a visit to Washington on Thursday, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf thanked the United States for its support during the crisis.

U.S. soldiers built treatment centres, set up mobile testing labs, and provided transportation and logistical support. Military medical teams trained around 1,500 local health workers.

"A lot of our health workers of this country died during the course of the Ebola crisis," Liberian nurse Juma Kollie told Reuters. "There was a need to have some attention giving to them. So the American government came in that direction."

The force will withdraw over the coming weeks but more than 100 soldiers would remain in the country for several months to monitor the disease.

"We are not turning our backs. We’re transitioning to a civilian operation that is already supporting more than 10,000 civilians who are working in the region," U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Linda Thomas Greenfield said on Wednesday.

04/11/2014 Samantha Lille

Depuis janvier 2014, une épidémie d'Ebola touche l’Afrique de l’Ouest, principalement la Guinée, la Sierra Leone, le Liberia, et le Nigeria, ainsi que le nord de la République démocratique du Congo.

Mi-septembre, la France est confrontée à l'arrivée sur son sol d'une malade, une volontaire de l'ONG MSF,  atteinte du virus. Rapatriée du Liberia dans un avion spécialement affrété, la jeune femme est ensuite hospitalisée à l'hôpital d’instruction des armées Bégin, une des structures référentes en France. Rencontre avec les témoins de cette prise en charge sensible.

21 June 2013 defenceWeb (Reuters)

Liberia sent about 50 troops to Mali to join the U.N. peacekeeping mission, a first for the West African nation since its 14-year civil war ended a decade ago.

The 12,000-strong U.N. force, known as MINUSMA, will take over peacekeeping duties next month from an African regional mission deployed after France launched an offensive in January to drive Islamist rebels from northern Mali.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, joint winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, urged the soldiers to be professional and disciplined during their mission, Reuters eports.

"You are the pride of Liberia," Sirleaf told the troops at a ceremony in the capital, Monrovia.

The peacekeeping deployment is only the second in Liberia's history, after it sent peacekeepers to Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1960s.

The Mali mission is the first since it rebuilt its army from scratch after the civil war, which was characterized by the use of child soldiers by rival warlords and rampant human rights abuses.

Peacekeepers from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS played an important role in returning war-torn Liberia to stability.

"We are going to Mali to help our friends. They helped us during our war. If we are in the position to help, we need to do so," said Emmanuel Minarth, an officer with the contingent.

Former President Charles Taylor, who led Liberia for most of the civil war years, was jailed for 50 years by the International Criminal Court in May last year for helping the RUF rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone commit what the court called some of the worst war crimes in history.