In 2002, Colonel Sarwar Azam became the Deputy Commander of the Bangladesh UN Sector in Sierra Leone in Africa. The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone from 1999 to 2005. It was created by the United Nations Security Council in October 1999 to help with the implementation of the Lomé Peace Accord, an agreement intended to end the Sierra Leonean civil war. UNAMSIL expanded in size several times in 2000 and 2001. It concluded its mandate at the end of 2005, the Security Council having declared that its mission was complete. The mandate was notable for authorising UNAMSIL to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence (albeit "within its capabilities and areas of deployment") – a return to a more proactive style of UN peacekeeping. Among others, its mission was to monitor adherence to the ceasefire in accordance with the ceasefire agreement (whose signing was witnessed by Jesse Jackson); and to provide support, as requested, to the elections, which are to be held in accordance with the present constitution of Sierra Leone