The Liberian faction sympathetic to exiled former president Charles Taylor has named five ministers in the West African country’s post-war power-sharing government, officials said on Thursday.
Daniel Chea will resume the defence portfolio, while a former county superintendent, Dan Morais, will be Interior Minister, the officials told Agence France Presse as the West African country’s new interim leader Gyude Bryant began his second full day in office.
The post-war government’s 21 ministries are to be shared among members of the old Taylor administration, two rebel groups, political parties and civic groups under a peace plan hammered out after the former warlord quit Liberia for exile in Nigeria on August 11 under intense international pressure.
On Wednesday the former rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) announced that it has designated Kabineh Janneh as Justice Minister, Luseni Kamara for Finance, Vamba Kanneh for Transport and Lavalla Supuwood for Labour.
For its part, the smaller rebel group, Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model), has designated its leader Thomas Nimely as Liberia’s next Foreign Minister.
Among Taylor’s previous administration, Christian Herbert, who was labour minister under the disgraced former president, will become Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs.
Peter Coleman was named Social Affairs Minister, and Eugene Nagbe, who was the spokesperson of outgoing interim president Moses Blah, will be in charge of the Ministry of Postal Services and Telecommunications.
The nominations have to be confirmed by Parliament, whose members have yet to be named from among the same myriad parties that make up the government.
Meanwhile, fighting erupted in Liberia’s remote southeast between former rebels and forces loyal to Taylor, Nimely said late on Wednesday.
Nimely told a press conference that the fighting in the Oriental Timber Company forest in Grand Bassa County was sparked by two Taylor generals whom he named only as Kofi and Maa Mapu.
Sporadic fighting has been reported in the West African country since the peace accord was signed in August, but the report of the new clash came two days after Bryant’s inauguration.
Nimely sought to play down the incident, blaming it on ”distressed people wishing to make a point”.
He said Model forces were in full control of Grand Bassa, where the fighting had been contained.
Liberia has been devastated by two civil wars — from 1989 to 1997 and 1999 to 2003. — Sapa-AFP