Rebels advance on Liberian capital
Reports of the rebel advance through Liberia's lawless interior came after a weekend of skirmishes with government troops and accusations of a civilian massacre, prompting calls for African peacekeepers to deploy outside the capital.
Rebel factions Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model) struck a peace deal with the government last week to end nearly 14 years of strife in the West African country.
The deal paves the way for an interim government in October and elections in two years but while rebels have pulled back from the capital on one axis, fighting on the two other main roads leading from the interior to Monrovia has barely ceased.
"Our team in Totota met people on the road coming from Gbatala, who said it had been taken by LURD," said one aid worker, referring to a town 130 km from Monrovia on the highway to Ivory Coast. "It looks like (LURD) has made a big push."
Defence Minister Daniel Chea said yesterday there was still fighting near Gbatala, once used as a base for the feared government Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) fighters, and that he had dispatched a senior general to report back.
Aid workers said word of the latest clashes had filtered down the road to other centres such as Salala and Kakata and that civilians there were also heading toward the capital where 1,500 Nigerian troops are keeping the peace.
The fighting underlines the challenges of ending more than a decade of war between drugged-up teenage fighters, especially in the bush, beyond lines of control and communications.
Caretaker President Moses Blah said on Monday the African peacekeepers in Liberia to keep the warring parties apart needed to move quickly to end the carnage in the West African nation.
But Colonel Theophilus Tawiah of the regional peace force Ecomil said the 1,559 troops on the ground would not push beyond the outskirts of Monrovia until reinforcements due from Mali, Senegal and Ghana arrived.
An Ecomil patrol went as far as Liberia's second city Buchanan on Sunday, which is held by Model, after shooting in the area sent thousands of terrified civilians scurrying for cover in Monrovia.
Further north, state radio accused Model fighters of massacring civilians at Bahn in central Nimba County, although the reports from the remote location could not be confirmed.
Security sources in the area said any fighting around Bahn was more likely to involve the larger rebel group LURD.
Meanwhile, thousands of people are moving towards displaced camps in central Liberia.
"Our estimation is that there are about 3,000 to 4,000 people on the road heading from Gbatala to Salala," said the UN's special representative for humanitarian assistance, Ross Mountain.
An estimated 50,000 people are displaced by four years of brutal fighting in three camps at Salala, Totota and Maimu about 80 kilometres northeast of Monrovia. Refugees have fled fighting in the country's northern Lofa county.
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