Troops from Ghana are joining 900 Nigerian soldiers leading a West African peacekeeping force seeking to ensure peace in war-torn Liberia.
The contingent of Ghanaian soldiers were due to arrive Friday. Several other African nations, including South Africa, Mali and Senegal will also contribute troops. The force is to grow to just over 3,000 soldiers.
The peacekeepers are currently securing the capital, Monrovia, to facilitate the delivery of relief supplies, but they have not yet gone beyond the capital city. The situation for hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Monrovia is improving - but the pace of aid deliveries remains slow.
An estimated one million people throughout Liberia need humanitarian aid. But the United Nations is demanding security guarantees before its workers resume full-scale relief operations. Rebels have promised relief workers safe passage into territory still under their control. But reports of skirmishes in the north and central parts of Liberia have raised security concerns among aid agencies.
Meanwhile, Liberia's interim president Moses Blah is in neighboring Guinea, where he is to meet with President Lansa Conte. Guinea has long been accused of arming Liberia's largest rebel group.
President Blah is traveling through West Africa, meeting regional leaders. He has already visited Nigeria and Ivory Coast. Liberia's 14 years of conflict have had a ripple effect in the region, stirring instability in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Guinea.
President Blah is a caretaker leader who will hand over power to the chairman of a two year transitional administration in October. On Thursday, government and rebel delegates chose businessman Gyude Bryant to head the unity government, made up of representatives from Liberia's two rebel groups, the former government of Charles Taylor, political parties and civil society groups.
Mr. Bryant and his vice chairman, Wesley Johnson, will head the new government until new elections in 2005.
