UNMIL

United Nations Mission in Liberia

United Nations Mission in Liberia
Abbreviation	UNMIL
Formation	19 September 2003
Type	Peacekeeping Mission
Legal status	Active
Head	Farid Zarif
Parent organization	United Nations Security Council
Website	unmil.unmissions.org

The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was a peace-keeping force established in September 2003 to monitor a ceasefire agreement in Liberia following the resignation of President Charles Taylor and the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War. The peacekeeping mission was ended on 30 June 2016. It consisted of up to 15,000 United Nations military personnel and 1,115 police officers, along with a civilian component. It superseded the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). As of July 2016, 1,240 U.N. military and 606 police personnel will remain on the ground, but will be there only in case of emergency.

Civil war in Liberia claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people - mostly civilians - and led to a complete breakdown of law and order. It displaced scores of thousands of people, both internally and beyond the borders, resulting in some 850,000 refugees in the neighboring countries. Fighting began in late 1989, and by early 1990, several hundred deaths had already occurred in confrontations between government forces and fighters who claimed membership in an opposition group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by a former government official, Mr. Charles Taylor.

From the outset of the conflict, a sub regional organization, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), undertook various initiatives aimed at a peaceful settlement. The United Nations supported ECOWAS in its efforts to end a civil war. These efforts included establishing, in 1990, an ECOWAS's observer force, the Military Observer Group (ECOMOG). The Security Council in 1992 imposed an arms embargo on Liberia, and the Secretary-General appointed a Special Representative to assist in talks between ECOWAS and the warring parties.

After ECOWAS brokered a peace agreement in Cotonou, Benin, in 1993, the Security Council established the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) under Security Council Resolution 866. Its task was to support ECOMOG in implementing the Cotonou peace agreement - especially compliance with and impartial implementation of the agreement by all parties. UNOMIL was the first United Nations peacekeeping mission undertaken in cooperation with a peacekeeping operation already established by another organization.