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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Peacekeepers cheered as they move into Monrovia
MONROVIA, 7 August 2003 (IRIN) - Nigerian peacekeeping troops moved into the city of Monrovia on Thursday and received a rapturous welcome from tens of thousands of people who lined the streets chanting "We want peace! No more war!"
The column of white painted armoured cars and trucks toured the government-held eastern suburbs and city centre as crowds of people waved palm branches and white flags. But the Nigerian troops said they were not yet ready to cross over to the port area on Bushrod Island, which is held by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement.
The Nigerians later moved about 300 troops from Robertsfield international airport, 50 km east of Monrovia, to a forward base in the city's eastern suburb of Sinkor. They established their headquarters in the premises of the Lebanese Social Club. Lieutenant Colonel Amos Madamoya told reporters: "At the appropriate time we will deploy throughout Monrovia."
Relief agencies are desperate for the peacekeepers to take over control of the port so that food stocks held there can be distributed to starving people in government-controlled areas of Monrovia and more can be brought in by sea. The United Nations has estimated that up to 450,000 people in this ragged city of one million people urgently need food aid.
Action against Hunger said on Wednesday it estimated that 30 percent of an estimated 200,000 displaced people in Monrovia were suffering from malnutrition. The city has been under attack by rebel forces for the past two months and many of its inhabitants have not eaten a proper meal for days.
Frederic Bardou, Action Against Hunger's head of mission in Liberia, said in a statement: "The population is desperate ... The world knows what is happening, but Liberians do not see anything being done to help them."
President Charles Taylor meanwhile confirmed to parliament that he would quit on Monday and hand over power to Vice-President Moses Blah in view of what he called "a broad-based international conspiracy against my government."
Taylor did not appear in person, but a letter from him was read out to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives.
"I have decided to sacrifice my presidency and turn over the mantle of authority to my vice-president at precisely 11.59 am on Monday August 11 2003," Taylor said in the letter. "It is my hope that this resignation will then allow for the restoration of peace, security and prosperity to all Liberians."
The motion to approve Taylor's resignation and his replacement by Vice-President Moses Blah was then approved by the legislators 46 votes to one.
Taylor told CNN television on Thursday that he would definitely hand over power to Blah on Monday. But the former warlord, who was elected president in 1997, avoided saying when exactly he would leave Liberia to take up an offer of asylum in Nigeria.
"My movement and what I do is a matter of security," Taylor said. "I can assure the world that my words that I have given will be carried out, and just watch and see."
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday that he was planning to fly to Monrovia to witness Taylor handing over power on Monday. He added that Taylor would leave the country the same day or on Tuesday at the latest.
Liberia has been in a state of almost constant civil war since Taylor took up arms against the government of Samuel Doe in 1989. Repeated bouts of intervention by West African peacekeeping forces have so far failed to secure a lasting political settlement.
The latest West African force began arriving on Monday to enforce a ceasefire between Taylor's troops and two rebel movements which now control about three quarters of the country.
Several hundred Nigerian troops have been flown into Robertsfield airport on UN helicopters from neighbouring Sierra Leone. A total of 1,500 are due to arrive by early next week as the vanguard of a West African force of 3,250 that will also include military contingents from Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Benin and the Gambia.
But the Nigerians have been moving cautiously. It took them four days to establish their first base inside the city of Monrovia, where an informal truce between government and rebel fighters continued to hold on Thursday for the third day running.
Fierce fighting meanwhile continued in Liberia's port city of Buchanan, 100 km further east, which was captured by a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), on July 28.
MODEL chairman Yaya Nimely told the BBC that Taylor's forces, which tried to retake Buchanan earlier this week, had withdrawn from the city on Thursday morning.
Relief workers said it would probably be several more days before the Nigerians had enough troops on the ground to take over the port of Monrovia unless a US naval task force lying just over the horizon intervened to help them.
Washington has sent a flotilla of three assault ships with 2,300 marines on board to stand by off the coast of Liberia, but President George Bush has so far been reluctant to put US troops ashore in large numbers. A seven-strong military liaison team flew from the ships into Robertsfield airport by helicopter on Monday to discuss ways of providing logistical support for the West African peacekeepers.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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