Monrovia: Please help!
2003-07-25 20:04
MOnrovia - Over 120 wounded have been treated by the International Committee for the Red Cross in wartorn Monrovia, the ICRC said on Friday, as calls mounted for civilians to be protected in the vicious conflict.
"We have today received 61 wounded civilians and 60 military people," the Liberian doctor in charge of the JFK hospital, Mohamed Cherif, told AFP.
The ICRC has set up a field surgery at the hospital.
Cherif said that at least 11 civilians had been killed during mortar attacks on residential quarters on Friday, as intense fighting between the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and troops loyal to President Charles Taylor entered its sixth day.
Medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) condemned the worsening security situation.
"Last Saturday, a bullet came into our paediatric surgery, today shells are landing in front of our door. Civilians, including children, have been killed," MSF project director Alain Kassa said.
In a statement issued on Friday in Paris, MSF's emergency director called on the warring parties to stop targeting civilians, and warned that what little medical infrastructure remained was under threat.
"These indiscriminate bombardments are killing and mutilating civilians... warring parties must respect the protection of civilians," the statement said.
The ICRC evacuated seven women staff five days ago "when the situation got a little hot", according to Cherif, and is now operating with a reduced staff of nine.
"It's very tense because we don't have adequate staff," he said. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA