Armed Forces of Liberia

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The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) is the military of Liberia. Liberia's armed forces originated as home guards formed by the first black colonists from the United States, were formalised as the Liberian Frontier Force in 1908, became the Armed Forces of Liberia in 1962, and were torn apart by the civil war of the 1990s. They are now in the process of being rebuilt.

The military began as the Liberian Frontier Force (LFF), which was formed in 1908 from earlier home guards as a 500-man force, whose mission was originally “to patrol the border in the Hinterland [against British and French territorial expansions] and to prevent disorders.”[1]

Contents

[edit] Prewar

The LFF was re-organised as the Armed Forces of Liberia under the Amended National Defense Law of 1956,[2] though other sources say 1962.[3]

There was no formal reserve connected to the armed forces in 1984, although the militia had served in that role before it was disbanded in 1980.[4] By law every able-bodied male between the ages of 16 and 45 years was to serve in the militia.[5] This stricture was not enforced, however, and by the early 1970s the militia reported a strength of only some 4,000 poorly trained and ill-equipped men. In its later years, members of the militia met only quarterly for sparsely attended drill practice. The 1978 Annual Report of the Liberian Ministry of National Defense said that 'The various militia regiments, in accordance with the law, held quarterly parades. ...Furthermore, the entire Regiments were out in full strength during burial occasions.'[6] By the time it was disbanded, the militia was considered to be completely ineffective as a military force.

In 1984 the AFL included the Liberian National Guard Brigade and related units (6300 men), and the Liberian National Coast Guard (about 450 men). The important LNG Brigade was based at the Barclay Training Center (BTC) in Monrovia, and was composed of six infantry battalions (including the 4th Battalion at Zwedru), a military engineer battalion, a field artillery battalion, and a support battalion.[7] By this time the AFL was essentially the personal army of President Samuel Doe, who ruled as an autocrat during his time in office from 1986 to 1990.

[edit] Demobilisation

Immediately before the Liberian Civil War (1989-2003), the AFL consisted of about 6000 soldiers. By March 1, 2005, over a year after the war ended, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) had disarmed and demobilized 103,018 people[8] who claimed to have fought for former president Charles Taylor or the two rebel groups, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) or the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL).

In 2005 most former AFL elements were concentrated at Camp Schiefflin, situated midway between Monrovia, Roberts International Airport and the American-owned Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel.[9] They have now apparently been retired with pensions.

[edit] Rebuilding the AFL

Part 4 (Articles VI and VII) of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the Second Liberian Civil War addressed security sector reform.[10] It declared that future recruits for the new AFL would be screened for their fitness for service as well as prior human rights violations, that the new force would be ethnically balanced and without political bias, and that the new force's mission would be to defend national sovereignty and in extremis respond to natural disasters.

In 2005, the United States provided funding for DynCorp International, a private military contractor, to train a new 4000-man Liberian military. The projected force strength was later reduced to 2000 men. Once the new Liberian force is operational, UNMIL will start winding down the strength of its 15,000 strong peacekeeping mission. A new batch of 500 screened personnel started to arrive at the Camp Ware base at VOA Careysburg, inland from Monrovia, for initial training in early November 2007,[11] joining 608 others who had graduated earlier.[12]

There appears to be some lack of coordination, at least according to the Wall Street Journal, between the Liberian Ministry of Defense and DynCorp, who is training the new army.[13] The newspaper said in an August 2007 report:

Mr. Samukai also complains that he feels sidelined from the formation of an army that, as defense minister, he is supposed to oversee. Neither the State Department nor DynCorp will let him see the company's contract, for instance. And the U.S. insists that instead of talking directly to DynCorp managers, he go through Major Wyatt [chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia] on all matters related to the training.

On the other hand, DynCorp and the U.S. Embassy are scrutinizing the personnel for the new armed forces thoroughly. Recruits have to pass a literacy test, an aptitude test, a drug test and an HIV test, and their names and faces are put on posters which are distributed to try and make sure none have a history of war crimes or other human rights violations.[14] The Minister of Defense that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf appointed in early 2006 is also well-regarded; IRIN said of Brownie Samukai in a January 2006 story:

Samukai is regarded as a safe pair of hands for the crucial Defence Ministry. As chief of police in the mid-1990s Samukai pioneered a rapid reaction force to crack down on armed robbery. Since fleeing Liberia when former warlord Charles Taylor came to power, Samukai has worked for the UN in East Timor and Tanzania.[15]

On January 11th, 2008 a total 485 soldiers graduated from Initial Entry Training class 08-01. The addition of this third class of soldiers, consisting of 468 men and 17 women, raised the total strength of the AFL from 639 to 1,124. The graduation marked a significant milestone in the U.S.-led Security Sector Reform for National Defense program, as the total number of soldiers who have completed basic training exceeds 50% for the first time. [16]

In the interim buildup period, President Johnson-Sirleaf decided that a Nigerian officer would act as Commander in Charge of the new armed forces. Major General Suraj Alao Abdurrahman succeeded the previous incumbent, Lieutenant General Luka Yusuf, in early June 2007; Lieutenant General Yusuf had been posted home to Nigeria to become Chief of Army Staff.[17]

[edit] Financing

The CIA World Factbook 2007 estimated that Liberia had spent 1.3% of GDP on the Armed Forces, a 2006 estimate. The IISS Military Balance 2007 lists no figures for military spending but notes that U.S. Foreign Military Assistance was US $2.9 million in 2005, $2.0 million in 2006, and $1.6 million in 2007.[18]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Quoted in Aboagye and Rupiya, 2005, p.258
  2. ^ Brownie J. Samukai, Armed Forces Of Liberia: Reality Check For A New Military With A Redefined Constitutional Mission, February 17, 2004
  3. ^ Brief History Of The Armed Forces Of Liberia | NewLiberian.com
  4. ^ Syrulwa Somah, PhD, Reorganizing the Liberian Military for External Defense & Internal Peacekeeping, A Speech Delivered at the African Methodist Episcopal University, Monrovia, Liberia, March 2005. Known regiments include the 9th Regiment AFL ([1]), and the 19th Regiment AFL (1978 Annual Report).
  5. ^ Liberia Country Study 1984, accessed via Globalsecurity.org, April 2008
  6. ^ Annual Report of the Ministry of National Defense to the Fourth Session of the Forty-Eighth Legislature of the Republic of Liberia, Year Ending December 31, 1978, accessed at New York Public Library, October 2007
  7. ^ US Library of Congress Country Study:Liberia via GlobalSecurity.org, Organization and Strength, accessed August 2007
  8. ^ National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration, DDRR Consolidated Report Phase (Status of Disarmament and Demobilisation Activities as at 1/16/2005). 1,2 & 3, cited in Ebo, 2005. The UN Secretary-General's 6th Report on UNMIL, S/2005/177, dated March 17, 2005, paragraph 22, gives 101,495.
  9. ^ Location of the camp provided by GlobalSecurity.org, Camp Schiefflin, accessed mid September 2007. See also IRIN, LIBERIA: Soldiers refuse to quit camp needed for new army, 4 January 2006, mirrored at GlobalSecurity.org
  10. ^ Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 18 August 2003, reproduced by the United States Institute of Peace
  11. ^ allAfrica.com: Liberia: New AFL Recruits Go Into Training (Page 1 of 1)
  12. ^ The Analyst Newspaper : Liberia : 2007
  13. ^ Michael M. Phillips, An Army unsuilled by past Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2007
  14. ^ Michael M. Phillips, An Army unsullied by past Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2007
  15. ^ IRIN, LIBERIA: Sirleaf unveils first members of new peacetime government, January 17, 2006
  16. ^ Lieutenant Colonel Wyatt, chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation, 11 January 2008. See also http://www.analystliberia.com/4_experts_in_for_angel_autopsy_jan14_08.html
  17. ^ Charles B. Yates, Liberia: Army Gets New Commander, The Inquirer (Monrovia), 11 June 2007
  18. ^ IISS Military Balance 2007, Routledge for the IISS, p.280

[edit] Bibliography


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