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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Nigerian peacekeepers occupy port of Monrovia, US marines land
MONROVIA, 14 August 2003 (IRIN) - Nigerian peacekeeping troops took control of Monrovia's strategic port on Thursday as rebel forces withdrew from the city and United States marines landed at Liberia's international airport to provide extra firepower if necessary.
Helicopters and two Harrier jump-jets from a US naval task force offshore flew overhead as Nigerian armoured personnel carriers moved across two bridges spanning the Mesurado River in central Monrovia that had marked the frontline between Liberian government and rebel forces for the past month.
A crowd of several thousand happy and excited Liberian civilians formed on the city centre side of the bridges, anxious to return to their homes in the northern suburbs and look for friends and relatives whom they had lost contact with in the fog of war. But Nigerian troops barred their way, saying the peacekeepers first wanted to secure the area before allowing civilians free access.
Hope of finding substantial stocks of food in the port warehouses for aid agencies for immediate distribution to Monrovia's one million starving inhabitants were dashed by 24 hours of heavy looting before the peacekeepers moved in.
An IRIN correspondent who visited the port on Thursday said the UN World Food Programme's warehouses, which had contained more than 9,000 tonnes of food, had been cleaned out. All the containers of food in the port had been burst open and emptied, he added.
Relief agencies estimate that between 200,000 and 450,000 people displaced from their homes by two months of fighting in Monrovia are in urgent need of food aid. The city has almost run out of fuel and clean drinking water, sanitation in the makeshift shelters for displaced people is dreadful and diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea are rife.
The Nigerian peacekeepers were greeted on Bushrod Island by enthusiastic crowds of people chanting "We want peace. Welcome ECOMIL."
Shortly before they moved in, nine US helicopters touched down at Roberts international airport, 50 km east of Monrovia, carrying a rapid reaction force of 150 marines. This was due to back up the batallion of 776 Nigerian soldiers who began arriving in war-torn Liberia on August 4.
A second batallion of nearly 800 Nigerian troops was due to start arriving at the airport later on Thursday.
There are about 2,300 US marines on american warships offshore, but Department of Defence officials said in Washington on Wednesday night there were only plans to deploy 200 of them, in addition to 100 US military personnel already on the ground. Most of the latter are defending the heavily fortified US embassy.
US ambassador John Blaney told reporters at the airport as the marines landed: "You are going to see American boots on the ground and a firm commitment to uphold humanitarian concerns in this country."
Liberia's provisional president Moses Blah meanwhile flew to the Ghanaian capital Accra for a summit meeting with the leaders of two rebel movements to iron out the last remaining obstacles in the way of a comprehensive peace agreement aimed at ending 14 years of civil war.
Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea told IRIN on arrival in Accra that he hoped the three sides would be able to sign a definitive peace agreement within the next day or two. "We are here for concluding arrangements on the peace agreement. We signed a ceasefire on June 17 and I am confident we will get an agreement again this time," he said.
Former president Charles Taylor, who started the conflict in Liberia and supported rebel movements in three neighbouring countries, stepped down on Monday and went into exile in Nigeria, leaving Blah, his vice-president in charge.
Taylor's departure, under heavy pressure from the United States, paved the way for a rebel withdrawal from Monrovia and the deployment of US troops to assist the Nigerians. They form the vanguard of a multinational West African intervention force that plans to deploy 3,250 men in Liberia by the end of August.
Blah is due to rule the country until 2 October, when a broad-based interim government, formed on the basis of the peace agreement, will take over.
Shortly after arriving in Accra, Blah went into a meeting with Sekou Conneh, chairman of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement, which has been fighting government forces for control of Monrovia since early June, and Thomas Nimely, leader of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). Nimely's rebel group controls the south and east of Liberia, including the country's second city Buchanan.
Diplomats from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which is brokering the peace talks in Accra, said the Liberian leaders would be joined later by Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the current chairman of ECOWAS.
"Let us keep our fingers crossed. We will work hard on reaching a final agreement," ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas told IRIN has he went into the talks
As the Nigerian peacekeepers moved into the port area on Bushrod Island at midday (1200 GMT) on Thursday, LURD fighters were still in the process of withdrawing to the Po River on the northern edge of Monrovia.
They loaded pickup trucks with looted items such as plastic chairs, mattresses and cans of fuel as they left. One party drove off in a WFP truck.
At the same time, government fighters were pulling out of the city centre and eastern suburbs, leaving Monrovia in the hands of the Nigerian and US peacekeepers and a handful of Liberian police. Most roadblocks manned by government soldiers and militiamen were dismantled on Wednesday night.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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