FREETOWN, Aug 23 (AFP) - Sierra Leone has added 600 new officers to its 7,000-member police force in a bid to fill any security vacuum being left by the departing UN mission in the west African state, officials said Monday.
Police chief Brima Acha Kamara said officers were deploying around the country, most recently into the eastern diamond-rich Tongo Fields area, from where a battalion of Zambian soldiers withdrew last week.
At its peak, the UN operation in Sierra Leone following a decade of savage conflict was the world's largest, involving more than 17,000 peacekeepers in the disarmament and stabilization of the country no bigger than Scotland.
Five years and billions of dollars (euros) later, the mission, known as UNAMSIL, is winding down and set to include just 3,200 soldiers from Ghana, Pakistan and Nigeria assuring security come December.
Troops from former colonial power Britain are also forecast to remain in the Atlantic coastal country for an undetermined period.
UNAMSIL has assisted in the recruitment and training of new police cadets and military servicemembers, who are to ensure both border and internal security once the peacekeepers pull out completely.
"As a result of the UNAMSIL drawdown from the north, south and east of the country, we have taken full responsibility of the internal security in those areas," Kamara said Monday.
Sierra Leone's police force, which is expected to number 9,500 by the end of the year, plans to move into the Western area around the capital Freetown in late September, with an official handover of all responsibilities for security set for October.
Despite assurances from UN and Sierra Leone officials that there will be no security vacuum when UNAMSIL finally pulls stakes, citizens are wary about the challenges that will be confronting their as-yet untested law enforcement agencies.
Of particular concern are the border regions and diamond-mining areas that have been a lure not only for Sierra Leone's insurgents but also groups such as Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, according to documents from Western intelligence agencies and the UN-backed war crimes court currently operating in Freetown.