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UN disarmament teams in West Africa meet to work out strategies

UN disarmament teams in West Africa meet to work out strategies

Four Disarmament, Demobilization and Re-Integration (DDR) teams from United Nations peacekeeping missions, national governments and development partners have discussed how to stop the circulation of fighters and weapons through porous regional borders.

The teams from Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone agreed at the meeting Friday in Dakar, Senegal, to increase cross-country collaboration and harmonize national DDR programmes in West Africa, "a region where violence easily spreads across state boundaries and with massive cross-border circulation of combatants and illicit weapons," the host of the meeting, the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), said in a statement.

They also discussed the need to neutralize "spoilers," those individuals or groups who maintain the warring and hamper efforts at DDR.

After their next meeting, they would submit recommendations to the following meeting of the heads of UN peace missions in West Africa, according to UNOWA.

The fifth regional meeting of mission chiefs, also previously scheduled for Friday, was postponed. It was to have included a review of the simmering conflict in Guinea's Guinea-Forestière Province.