An elite unit of Irish troops has freed 35 Liberian civilians who were beaten and raped by armed renegade government forces holding them against their will in a 20-foot container near Liberia's border with Guinea.
The Irish Army said while information on the rescue was still unclear, the 35 men and women had been held at gunpoint for "at least a number of days" before the Irish troops managed to free them. The Irish soldiers detained some of the captors and were last night holding them at a local police station. They were continuing to secure the area and provide medical assistance to the victims.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, praised the operation, saying the civilians had been rescued from a dangerous situation and an uncertain fate. "The Government sent our troops to assist in restoring peace and to seek to ensure that the civilian population in Liberia would have their basic human rights restored after a long, cruel and bloody conflict, and we are proud of their success another small but significant step on the road to normality in Liberia."
He added the operation represented "tangible evidence" of Ireland's commitment to human rights and conflict resolution.
Members of the elite army ranger wing took the renegade forces by surprise when they were flown by Mi26 helicopter into the region of Gbapa, in the north-east of the country, on Monday as part of a lightning joint operation between Irish forces and the UN.
The Irish troops were acting on information from locals. The civilians were being held in the container near the town of Yekepa in northern Nimba County, around 300 kilometres to the north-east of the capital Monrovia. No shots were fired during the operation and there were no injuries reported.
