¡¡UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Thursday appealed to world governments to provide 58 million US dollars in extra aid to help 47,000 ex-fighters in war-torn Liberia.

    Peace in the West African country could become unravelled if the former soldiers do not get urgently needed education and job training after laying down their weapons, the UN agency warned in a statement.

    The additional funds are on top of the 30 million dollars already received or pledged to the rehabilitation and reintegration phase of a plan to help former combatants in Liberia's 14-year civil war.

    Some 20,035 ex-fighters already have been through the rehabilitation and reintegration portion of the three-year-long disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) program, but UNDP warned that another 47,025 ex-combatants are at risk of missing the last two phases because of the lack of financing.

    As of Oct. 31, a total of 95,615 Liberia's former combatants have been disarmed and demobilized, including 9,251 child soldiersand 17,147 women fighters.

    UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his latest report to the Security Council on Liberia, warned that the ex-combatants "constitute a highly volatile group of unemployed youth with littleor no education or job skills, for whom the provision of training,education and work opportunities is urgently needed." Enditem