A 29-member delegation from the United Nations Security Council will visit Sierra Leone midweek next week, Politico can authoritatively reveal, and confirm also that the United States Permanent Representative to the world body, Susan Rice, will lead the delegation.
According to the Office of the UN Spokesman in New York, the delegation will visit west Africa from 18 – 23 May taking them to Liberia and Ivory Coast with Sierra Leone being the last leg of the visit.
In Sierra Leone, where the visit is expected to last for half a day, Council members will be meeting government officials and members of civil society amidst concerns about threats to the democratic process ahead of November’s presidential and legislative elections.
It comes in the wake of tensions between Sierra Leone and the UN following the controversial end of the tour of duty of UN envoy Michael Von der Schulenburg who later expressed concern over the imports of millions of dollars worth of weapons for the Sierra Leone Police. The assault weapons have since been handed over to the military and a new UN Envoy, Toyberg-Frandzen from Denmark, was named on 4 May. It is yet unclear as to when he will move to his station. It is unlikely that President Ernest Bai Koroma will be in town to see the high-powered delegation as sources at the presidency say he is finalising plans for a trip to China, despite this being the first Council visit here since his election in 2007.
In Liberia Security Council members will focus on the role of the UN peacekeeping mission there as well as discuss proposals for a drawdown of forces, which is expected to happen in three phases starting sometime this year.
This will be the Council’s first visit to Ivory Coast since it authorised the use of force to protect civilians, which helped topple president Laurent Gbagbo last year. Ambassadors will be spending the bulk of their West Africa trip here, including high-level meetings in Abidjan, an assessment of the peacekeeping mission (which is also facing a possible drawdown), and a visit to refugee camps on the border with Liberia.
