A week-long Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) International Conference in the Liberian capital Monrovia brought together distinguished personalities in the West Africa Sub-region, including present and former Heads of State, to discuss the achievements, failures and lessons from two decades of peace processes in West Africa. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf paid tribute to peacekeepers and others who had paid the ultimate price for peace while the UN Special Representative to Liberia, Ellen Margrethe Lųj, commended the Government of Liberia and ECOWAS for organizing the conference and expressed the hope that West African people will be free of conflict and violence.
Credit: Emmanuel Tobey/UNMIL / Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2010