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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: Rebel advance in north forces thousands to flee
TOTOTA, 26 August 2003 (IRIN) - Rebels in northern Liberia have recently advanced against government forces on two fronts near the town of Gbarnga, sending thousands of people fleeing on foot through driving rain towards the capital Monrovia.
An IRIN correspondent who visited Totota, the next town in the rebel's line of advance, said the exodus of civilians began on Sunday and was continuing on Tuesday morning.
Gbarnga, which is held by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement, lies 150 km north of Monrovia. But the steady advance of LURD forces has panicked people living as far as south as Kakata, only 45 km from the capital, into leaving their homes.
Local residents and displaced civilians in Totota said LURD fighters had overrun Gbalata, 30 km south of Gbarnga on the main road to Monrovia, and were advancing towards Totota about 20 km away.
The town is surrounded by four camps housing an estimated 75,000 people displaced from their homes by 14 years of civil war.
About 100 government fighters fleeing the rebel advance sought refuge in one of these camps on Sunday night, provoking panic among the inhabitants.
“The fighters entered the camp with their weapons - AK 47s, grenades and other automatic guns. It was traumatizing for the displaced people living here,” Esther Washington, the camp protection officer told IRIN.
Security sources said LURD fighters were also advancing on a second front north from Gbarnga towards Ganta, a town on the Guinean border. An isolated group of government fighters was still holding out there, they added.
Robert Sulu, a clan chief in Totota, said fleeing civilians began pouring into Totota from Gbalata on Sunday evening.
“The LURD are moving southwards. Some displaced people in EJ Yancy camp have packed up their belongings to start leaving the camp. Up to 150,000 people are likely to be displaced from this area,” he told IRIN.
The state-owned Liberia Broadcasting System meanwhile reported clashes between government forces and a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) at Bahn, in Nimba County, 240 km northeast Monrovia. It said hundreds of civilians had been massacred by MODEL fighters there.
Information Minister Reginald Goodridge said he had received reports that these were “revenge tribal killings."
“MODEL, which is predominantly made up of Krahn tribesmen [from the southeast] believes the Gio and Mano tribes of Nimba helped [former president Charles] Taylor in the past against the Krahns,” he told IRIN.
Targen Wanteh, a former Liberian ambassador to Guinea, told Reuters: "They [MODEL] shot some people, cut women and children into pieces, opened up their stomachs, cut their heads and laid the bodies in front of their houses."
LURD Chief of Staff, General Aliyu Sheriff, denied that his troops were advancing from Gbarnga. He accused government forces of attacking LURD positions in a bid to recapture the town, which is the headquarters of Bong County.
Gbarnga was once a stronghold of former president Charles Taylor who stepped down and went into exile in Nigeria on 11 August. The town fell to LURD a few days beforehand.
Taylor’s favourite Maliki farm, now under LURD control, lies just outside the city. Security sources said Taylor had planned to retreat there if LURD ever succeeded in overrunning Monrovia. He kept large quantities of weapons, personal effects and food at the farm, they added. Nearby Gbalata was a key training base for his fighters.
A week after Taylor quit, the government signed a peace agreement with LURD and MODEL in the Ghanaian capital Accra. But while this has led to an uneasy truce in Monrovia, where Nigerian peacekeeping troops are helping to maintain order, fighting has continued sporadically in the interior.
Government reinforcements headed north from Monrovia towards Gbalata on Monday evening while jet fighters and helicopters from a US task force lying offshore flew several sorties over the area.
On Saturday skirmishes had been reported between government fighters and MODEL rebels near Roberts international airport, half way between Monrovia and the port city of Buchanan. These sent at least 8,000 displaced people fleeing for shelter.
Relief workers said the fighting near the airport subsided on Monday and Nigerian troops from the West African peacekeeping force ECOMIL had started limited patrols in the area.
ECOMIL has about 1,550 men in Liberia, but expects 750 more soldiers from Ghana, Mali and Senegal to start arriving later this week.
They will help fill a gap created by the withdrawal of 150 US marines from the task force, who were airlifted back to their ships at the weekend after being deployed for several days in support of ECOMIL and the airport and port.
Goodridge, criticised both rebel movements for disregarding the week-old peace agreement
“The government regrets that LURD and MODEL keep attacking our people when we have signed a peace agreement,” he told IRIN on Monday.
The 18 Augusut agreement, which paved way for a broad-based transitional government to be sworn in 14 October, was meant to signal the immediate end of armed conflict. It required all fighting forces to remain in their present locations and cease hostilities.
Liberia’s interim President, Moses Blah and the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Liberia, Jacques Klein, both condemned the resurgence of fighting and called for the peacekeeping troops to be deployed faster.
"We want ECOWAS to hurry up with the deployment and make sure they deploy throughout the country to stop the carnage on our people," Blah told Reuters at his home in Monrovia.
Klein, who is on a week-long tour of neighbouring countries to drum up support for the Liberian peace process, said in the Sierra Leone capital Freetown, on Monday: “This will go on until sufficient troops are on the ground. When they know that we have more guns than they do, then they will stop.”
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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