Security Council to visit Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone

The members of the United Nations Security Council will leave New York on Friday for an official mission to West Africa.

The 15 ambassadors will visit Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone, a UN spokesperson told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

In Liberia, they will review progress in the implementation of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), in addition to meeting President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

From Liberia, they will continue to Côte d’Ivoire, where they will meet President Alassane Ouattara and representatives of that country’s National Assembly. They will also travel to Guiglo in the west of the country, where they will be briefed on security and humanitarian issues.

From there, the Council members will fly back to Liberia, to the city of Zwedru, where they will meet Ivorian refugees. The delegation will return to Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, where the Council members are due to hold a meeting with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss regional issues.

The delegation will travel from Côte d’Ivoire to Sierra Leone, the last country on its three-country trip. There, the Ambassadors will meet President Ernest Bai Koroma and will hold a round table meeting with all political parties.

The delegation will return to New York on Thursday, 24 May.