Battle on for Liberia's second city

Government forces launched a major counterattack today on the key port of Buchanan, battling to take back Liberia’s second city a day after it fell to rebels.

Military officials reported a “big fight’ at the south-eastern port city, Buchanan.

Officials said President Charles Taylor’s forces were also struggling to take back his northern stronghold of Gbarnga, which like Buchanan fell to rebels yesterday.

Battles around the country came with rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy movement still pressing their 10-day siege of the capital Monrovia, amid fighting that has killed hundreds of civilians.

Rebels hold the port, cutting off warehouses filled with food from the increasingly hungry and disease-ridden populace of more than 1.3 million.

Aid workers, tending to malnourished children in the capital, decried the loss of Buchanan, which had been the last significant port left in government hands.

“Buchanan was the only alternative way to ship some food into Liberia. Now - you can forget about it,” Frederic Bardou said at a feeding centre in Monrovia run by Action Against Hunger.

Around him at the centre, emaciated babies hung from their mothers’ shoulders.

Rebels have waged a three year campaign to oust Taylor, a former warlord blamed for 14 years of near-perpetual conflict in the once leading West African country.

West African leaders have promised a multinational peace force for Liberia almost since rebels launched their siege of Monrovia in early June.