The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) is a peace-keeping force established in September 2003 to monitor a ceasefire agreement in Liberia following the resignation of President Charles Taylor and the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War. It consisted of up to 15,000 United Nations military personnel and 1,115 police officers, along with a civilian component. It superseded the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL).

Civil war in Liberia claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people - mostly civilians - and led to a complete breakdown of law and order. It displaced scores of thousands of people, both internally and beyond the borders, resulting in some 850,000 refugees in the neighboring countries. Fighting began in late 1989, and by early 1990, several hundred deaths had already occurred in confrontations between government forces and fighters who claimed membership in an opposition group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by a former government official, Mr. Charles Taylor.

Karin Landgren (b. 1957) was appointed the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Liberia on 27 April 2012. She is currently the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Burundi, and former head of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN).

Landgren, a Swedish national, grew up in Japan before attending^[when?] the London School of Economics, where she obtained^[when?] a Bachelor of Science (Economics) in international relations and a Master of Laws in international law.

In the 1980s, Landgren worked with Afghan and Iranian asylum-seekers in India, and with Vietnamese asylum-seekers in the Philippines and Singapore. She led^[when?]UNHCR offices in Singapore and Eritrea, as well as the Bosnia-Herzegovina office during the Bosnian war. After serving^[when?] as UNHCR's Chief of Standards and Legal Advice in Geneva, Switzerland, Landgren became^[when?] Chief of Child Protection for UNICEF.

In 2008, Landgren became Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Nepal, under Special Representative Ian Martin. Following the renewal of UNMIN's mandate in 2009, Landgren replaced Martin as the head of the UN mission.^{[citation needed]}

Ellen Margrethe Løj (born 17 October 1948 in Gedesby, Denmark) was the Ambassador to the United Nations for Denmark from 2001 until 2007. She also served as Denmark's ambassador to the Czech Republic before she was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General as Special Representative for Liberia in October 2007.

Løj has a master's degree in economics from Copenhagen University.

Løj began her diplomatic career in the Danish Foreign Ministry in 1973. From 1977 to 1980 she served as First Secretary of the Danish Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, U.S.. From 1982 to 1985 she served as Counsellor within the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. From 1986 to 1989 she was Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1989, Løj was appointed Ambassador to Israel, and served in that position until 1992 when she returned to the Foreign Ministry to serve as an Under Secretary and then State Secretary of the South Group. In 2001, she was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations.