A senior UN official Monday commended Sierra Leone's political leadership on ending violence, calling for more financial and political support from the Security Council to the West African nation. Michael von der Schulenburg, the secretary-general's Executive Representative for the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL), told the Security Council that the country 's politicians deserve praise for their handling of a recent outbreak of political violence, the most serious such incident since the end of the civil war in 2002. He said that all the parties involved have signed and committed themselves to a Joint Communique, which recognizes their collective responsibility in building a democratic and prosperous Sierra Leone. The governing All People's Congress (APC) and the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) signed that agreement on April 2, ending violence between the two parties that erupted in early March. Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war ended in 2002. The Joint Communique also 'recognizes the joint responsibility that both the governing and the opposition parties have in building a democratic and prosperous Sierra Leone,' von der Schulenburg told the 15-member Council. He added that the UN family in Sierra Leone has developed a Joint Vision strategy to support the government's agenda for change, which will cost 350 million U.S. dollars for a period of four years from 2009 to 2012. He appealed to member states and the Security Council for financial and political support for this strategy. In his most recent report on UNIPSIL, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Sierra Leone's recent violence, had it devolved into a full-blown conflict, could have heightened regional divisions and increased identification of political parties with ethnic loyalties. The violence 'served as a wake-up call for the Government and people of Sierra Leone on the critical challenges that require urgent and continued attention,' the report noted. Last August, the Security Council authorized the creation of UNIPSIL to replace the UN political office in the country, known as UNIOSIL, in a unanimously adopted resolution, which also gave the new structure an initial mandate of 12 months. UNIPSIL, which works closely with the UN Peacebuilding Commission, is tasked with providing political support to national and local efforts for identifying and resolving tensions and threats of potential conflict, whatever the source. It also monitors and promotes human rights, democratic institutions and the rule of law, including efforts to counter transnational organized crime and drug trafficking. Sierra Leone is one of the first two countries, along with Burundi, to receive support from the Commission, established in 2005 to help post-conflict countries determine the priority areas for rebuilding out of the vast array of challenges they face. 