Second rebel group launches attacks on Liberians

Fleeing refugees reported vicious attacks today as Liberia’s second rebel group began pressing toward the capital.

Within Monrovia, Liberia’s main rebel group signed a pledge to withdraw from the capital’s port, allowing food and aid to flow.

The sudden trouble on Liberia’s second front came a day after President Charles Taylor resigned and went into exile in Nigeria.

Even as Liberia’s main rebel movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, met West African and US officials, the second rebel group sprang back into motion, in what appeared a bid to get a share of the power, or spoils, in a post-Taylor Liberia.

Countless civilians fled through the bush and on the road in pouring rain, escaping attacks that most of them blamed on the second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia.

“People are coming and killing,” said Pauline Johnson, standing in a downpour and clutching an infant to her breast, after fleeing from her home without pausing to gather any possessions.

Johnson and others spoke of rebels attacking with machetes, killing men, women and children indiscriminately. One man said militia were entering homes, killing men of fighting age.

They said the attacks were taking place just a few miles from Monrovia’s airport, the temporary base of the West African peace force.

Two rebel groups had fought for Taylor’s overthrow – the larger, based in the north, and widely alleged to be supported by neighbouring Guinea. The smaller rebel group emerged only last year, and is believed supported by Ivory Coast, to the east of Liberia.

Both countries blamed Taylor in cross-border attacks that threatened their own stability, and allegedly backed the Liberian rebel groups in a bid to block such insurgencies.

MODEL most recently had engaged government forces at Buchanan, a key southern port and the country’s second-largest city.

In Ghana, site of off-and-on peace talks for Liberia, MODEL chairman Tiah Slanger confirmed today’s fighting.

“We were pushing those forces who attack us back, and since they came from the airport area, we had no option but to make sure that we push them back enough,” Slanger said.

“As I’m speaking to you now, we’re in touch with our commanders, impressing them to stop fighting,” Slanger said.

On the rebel-held side of Monrovia, local leaders of the larger rebel group welcomed the apparent offensive.

“If MODEL advances of the troops of Charles Taylor, well, then, that is helpful,” said Sekou Fofana, deputy administrator of civilian affairs for the larger group.