(2001)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 18-49: 575,384
females age 18-49: 588,780 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 267,430
females age 18-49: 286,231 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$67.4 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
7.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Liberia

Disputes - international:
although civil unrest continues to abate with the assistance of
18,000 UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) peacekeepers, as of January
2007, 22,000 Liberian refugees still remain in both Guinea and Cote
d'Ivoire, 38,500 in Sierra Leone, and 39,690 in Ghana; Liberia, in
turn, shelters 12,580 refugees fleeing turmoil in Cote d'Ivoire and
3,600 from Sierra Leone; despite the presence of over 9000 UN forces
(UNOCI) in Cote d'Ivoire since 2004, ethnic conflict continues to
spread into neighboring states who can no longer send their migrant
workers to Ivorian cocoa plantations; UN sanctions ban Liberia from
exporting diamonds and timber

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 6,592 (Cote d'Ivoire)
IDPs: 13,000 (civil war from 1990-2004; IDP resettlement began in
November 2004) (2006)

Illicit drugs:
transshipment point for Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin and
South American cocaine for the European and US markets; corruption,
criminal activity, arms-dealing, and diamond trade provide
significant potential for money laundering, but the lack of
well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
major money-laundering center

This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007

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@Libya

Introduction Libya

Background:
The Italians supplanted the Ottoman Turks from the area around
Tripoli in 1911 and did not relinquish their hold until 1943 when
defeated in World War II. Libya then passed to UN administration and
achieved independence in 1951. Following a 1969 military coup, Col.
Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI began to espouse his own political
system, the Third Universal Theory. The system is a combination of
socialism and Islam derived in part from tribal practices and is
supposed to be implemented by the Libyan people themselves in a
unique form of "direct democracy." QADHAFI has always seen himself
as a revolutionar