First Nigerian peacekeepers land in Liberia

The vanguard of a West African force aiming at stopping Liberia’s brutal civil war landed today at the airport on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia, which has been under rebel siege for two months.

Nigerian troops in camouflage and flak jackets piled out of UN helicopters and took up defensive positions in the rain with their machine guns at the ready.

“We know everyone is expecting us, and we hope to live up to their expectations,” said Colonel Theophilus Tawiah, chief of staff of the eagerly anticipated intervention force.

More than 1,000 people have died as the rebels fought their way street by street into Monrovia, a city of 1.3 million that has been swollen with refugees from across the country. Food and clean water are scarce.

The insurgents- who have been fighting President Charles Taylor’s forces for three years – hope the peacekeepers’ arrival will help them consolidate their positions in the city, and will hasten Taylor’s departure.

They cheered and fired flares over the war-ruined capital as news spread that the first Nigerians had touched down.

Almost 200 peacekeepers and 15 tonnes of equipment were due to be flown in today, but their commander said the first contingent of his men will only secure Monrovia’s government-held airport.

They are the first wave of a promised 3,250 strong West African deployment, to be followed within months by a full UN peacekeeping force.

The Nigerians are leaving a UN mission in Sierra Leone, where large scale military intervention by Britain, neighbouring Guinea and the UN helped end a vicious 10 year civil war.

Allan Doss, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s representative in Sierra Leone, saw off the first troops from neighbouring Sierra Leone.

“I wish you God speed and well in this historic mission to Liberia,” he said. “The people of Liberia have suffered a lot, for too long. They need your help.”

Monrovia’s airport is about 45 minutes down a government-held road from the city centre, where artillery and machine gun battles have broken out daily between Taylor’s fighters and the rebels.

On the airport road, aid workers were digging mass graves today for the bodies of up to 80 people killed in fighting, but left unclaimed at the city morgue.

Elsewhere, residents gathered white T-shirts and cloths to prepare a welcome for the peacekeepers – when they leave the relative safety of the airport.

In Italy, the leader of the main rebel group promised to co-operate with the peacekeepers, and renewed pledges to turn over the port and its vital food warehouses to them once they were in place.

“We are going to work with them,” said Sekou Conneh, in Rome for talks with an international mediating community. “They should be able to provide security for civilians, then we can withdraw.”

Meanwhile, two of three US warships carrying marines arrived off Liberia’s Atlantic coast, waiting to support the peacekeepers – but it was unclear whether the US marines would ever go ashore.

Taylor, a former warlord and indicted war criminal, has pledged to give up power on August 11 – meeting one demand by fellow African leaders and the United States. But he has backed out of similar promises in the past.

He is blamed by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone of fanning the flames of West Africa’s conflicts for the last 14 years.