Echoes of fire arms and artillery explosions from neighboring Ivory Coast are strong warning signals that must awaken the Liberian security architecture before the fragile peace and normalcy are not to be disrupted. There is no doubt that the military activities taking place in that sisterly state pose serious national security challenges for which the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the reformed Armed Forces of Liberia need to urgently rise from their dormancy.
The imperative of unusually unbridled alert to the Ivorian situation is rooted not only in the porosity of our borders and temptation for hundreds of ex-combatants in our country, but also in the history of bordering armed conflicts. UNMIL's military drawdown activities and the virtual dormancy or youngness of our national army, the Armed Forces of Liberia, creates adequate trepidations amid increased intensity of the Ivorian conflict particularly along our borders. Under such clear military inadequacies facing the country, it would be risky to employ a wait and see attitude rather than being proactive.
...