31 MARCH 2014 by Allfrica.com

Our two white UN vehicles are carefully moving down the dusty and bumpy road between Kenema and Koindu in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone.

We pass dozens of burnt, abandoned ruins of what were once sturdy brick and stone homes, some with hundreds of bullet holes in their walls – eerie remnants of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war that started in this very spot.

About 1,200 of the former warlord Charles Taylor’s rebels launched their devastating campaign here, leading to years of fighting that killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2 million people (about a third of the population), disrupting nearly every national institution.

After more than 15 years of successive peace operations, the last United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office (UNIPSIL), is closing at the end of March. Among the challenges immediately ahead are support to the Government in the constitutional review process, as well as strengthening human rights, and justice institutions.

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