U.S. to Train Africans for Sierra Leone

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 9 -- The Clinton administration is planning to send more than 200 U.S. Army special forces soldiers to Nigeria, where they would help train thousands of West African troops for peacekeeping duty in Sierra Leone.

About 50 U.S. soldiers and planners from the U.S. European Command have been in Nigeria and Ghana since late July to assess what they would need to train soldiers there for peace keeping missions, communications, and combat duty. That assessment is now “complete,” White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said today.

Some preliminary training should start this month, taking place mostly in Ghana and Nigeria, a senior administration official told ABCNEWS. Eventually, up to 6,000 soldiers from Nigeria, Ghana and possibly Senegal would be involved.

They would not operate under the United Nations, but instead under a Nigerian-led organization called the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group.

But it could be mid-September before a full-blown training program is under way. The administration first must determine whether the forces it plans to train have not perpetrated any human rights violations, officials said.

And even then, it will take two to six months to crank out the first Nigerian graduates of what will be the largest U.S. military training program of this type ever attempted in a single African nation.

Training on U.S. Equipment

The troops will be trained on equipment to be provided by the United States. President Clinton has authorized $20 million in military aid for African peacekeeping troops — $2 million in cash and $18 million to pay for everything from underwear and army boots to radios, trucks, medical supplies and machine guns.