The NEWS (Monrovia)
24 March 2008
Monrovia — Liberian Police have seized 30,000 rounds of ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles in the western region of the country, close to the border with Sierra Leone, a report by the French News Agency (AFP) said.
The AFP, quoting a senior Liberian police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of the ammunition were initially found last Wednesday by local people at Sinje - a Liberian town bordering Sierra Leone - who intercepted three canoes with alleged arm traffickers crossing the Marfee river.
Liberian police backed by their UN counterparts went on to find other stashes on Thursday after they received a tip-off from people of the town.
According to the report, one of the canoes was transporting a big bag and the others were escorting it.
"The people of Sinje tried to apprehend them to know what they were carrying and that resulted in a fight," the police officer said, but the alleged arm traffickers fled, leaving the bag of 2,061 machine-gun rounds.
People in the area then tipped off national police and they were assisted by security forces from the UN mission in the country.
"With the support of the UN police, we carried out a search in the areas. This is how we discovered 28,000 rounds of machine-gun ammunition on Thursday," the official added.
When the headquarters of the UN Mission was contacted, the acting spokesperson confirmed the information but said the ammunition in question was old and unusable materials left behind by former fighters.
The spokesperson said in 2006 ammunition was discovered in the same area apparently left behind by ex-fighters and that the latest catch of unusable materials should not create any fear.
It can be recalled, at the end of 2007, the United Nations Security Council renewed an arms embargo on Liberia for one year on the grounds that the situation in the West African country remains fragile despite reports that the country is stabilizing.
Liberia was devastated by consecutive civil wars between 1989 and 2003 and the country's timber and diamond resources, together with diamonds from Sierra Leone also then wracked by war, were taken by the belligerents to pay for weapons.
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