Food lies waiting just offshore
2003-08-13 14:53
Monrovia - A ship stocked with food is waiting off Liberia's coast and aid could start flowing into the starving capital within days if rebels withdraw from the city's port as promised, says a United Nations official.
Insurgents from Liberia's main rebel movement have pledged to pull back from Monrovia's capital at noon on Thursday, handing the vital port to a small-but-growing peacekeeping force meant to impose calm in Liberia after 14 years of near-constant strife.
Carolyn McAskie, UN deputy emergency relief co-ordinator, said if rebels pulled back, the ship could land and aid workers aboard could begin moving food at the weekend into government-held areas of besieged Monrovia, where starvation looms for many who have subsisted for weeks on leaves.
But, she said that "peacekeepers must provide support to humanitarian workers", because of the danger of looting by gunmen.
Even as officials scrambled to get aid moving into Monrovia, a second rebel group began a push toward the capital from their stronghold in the country's southeast on Tuesday.
Refugees fled what they called indiscriminate attacks, raising fears that the rebels might be fighting for a share of power after Charles Taylor stepped down as president.
Aid and food cut off by rebels
"People are coming and killing," said Pauline Johnson, standing in a downpour and clutching an infant to her breast, after running from her home without pausing to gather any possessions.
Rebels from the main insurgent group have held Monrovia's port and surrounding districts since roughly July 19, cutting off aid and food to refugees and civilians on the government-held side of the city.
Warehouses at the port have been pillaged, including at least three depots of the UN. World Food Programme that had 10 000 tons of aid.
McAskie said she hoped several tons of mealiemeal remained in storage containers at the port.
UN workers are also ready to fly in cooking oil and lentils from neighbouring Sierra Leone, she said, but more peacekeepers were needed beyond the vanguard force of about 800 Nigerian soldiers.
"There are definitely not enough peacekeepers," she said, while praising the initial deployment of a force meant to grow to 3 250 soldiers as an "important symbolic presence".
In the capital, markets offer little but harvested leaves.
Earlier on Tuesday, government fighters fired above the heads of hundreds of civilians massed at one of the bridges leading to the port, demanding to be allowed to cross in search of food.
"Everybody's hungry. If we don't die from gunfire we'll die of hunger," said a former university instructor Sylvester Lumeh, 35. "We have to take a chance."
Rebel official Sekou Fofana confirmed rebels would withdraw from the port, telling reporters, "We did not come and seize the port for any reason except security reasons.
"There is no reason to remain at the free port after Taylor has left."
Brigadier-General Festus Okonkwo of Nigeria, the west African peace force commander, said the government side also needed to withdraw its militias from the city under Tuesday's accord.
It's not clear whether that meant regular Liberian forces as well as militias would be made to pull out. The accord said nothing about a government militia pullback.
At least 1 000 civilians died
The agreement, meanwhile, also pins the still-forming multinational force to a timetable - forcing it to speed up deployment throughout the city.
West African nations negotiated Taylor's exit and pledged a peace force after rebels fighting a three-year war to oust Taylor began a push into Monrovia two months ago.
They left at least 1 000 civilians dead and the capital divided.
Taylor ceded power to his deputy, Moses Blah, on Monday and went into exile in Nigeria, ending 14 years of conflict begun when Taylor, then a rebel, launched Liberia into civil war in 1989.
Since landing the first troops on August 4, peacekeepers have ventured only occasionally into the city from their temporary base at Liberia's main airport.
Despite international pressure to intervene, the United States so far has sent only about 100 marines, including those protecting the US embassy, to Monrovia, while three US warships carrying about 4 500 marines and sailors await off Liberia's shore.
On Tuesday, a senior defence official in Washington said the United States might send small numbers of additional marines ashore if US and west African commanders decide they are needed to start humanitarian aid flowing.
The official said no decisions had been made to expand the US military presence in Liberia.
Advancing on Liberia's main airport
Meanwhile, new fighting flared on Tuesday on Liberia's second front, the southeast, held by the smaller, newer rebel group.
The Movement for Democracy in Liberia confirmed it was advancing toward Liberia's main airport, a 45-minute drive from Monrovia.
Its leaders, pushing north from the southeastern port city of Buchanan, claimed they were responding to attacks by Taylor's forces.
Countless civilians fled through the bush in pouring rain running toward Monrovia.
From just outside Liberia's main airport, Johnson, the woman running from her home with an infant, and others refugees spoke of rebels attacking with machetes, killing men, women and children indiscriminately.
One man, who said he was afraid to give his name, said militia were entering homes, killing men of fighting age.
The attacks were taking place just a few kilometres beyond the airport, said the refugees.
In Ghana, site of off-and-on peace talks for Liberia, the movement's representative, Tiah Slanger, confirmed Tuesday's fighting.
"We're in touch with our commanders, impressing them to stop fighting," said Slanger.
- AP