US urges nationals to leave as fighting intensifies

The United States government has urged its citizens to leave Liberia in view of escalating fighting between the government and rebels, the US Charge d'Affairs in Monrovia, Christopher Datta, said on Monday. The announcement created panic in Monrovia, where residents told IRIN they believed that a rebel attack on the capital could be imminent. "Given the current state of affairs, we believe it is prudent to advise private American citizens to leave Liberia," Datta told reporters. He added that the embassy would remain open and conduct normal business. The diplomat would not say how many Americans were currently in Liberia. The State Department advice followed a US warning to the warring parties on Thursday to stop fighting and allow humanitarian access to suffering people. Clashes between the government and two rebel groups, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), have intensified ahead of proposed peace talks in Ghana on June 4. Rebel forces now control more than half this heavily forested country of 2.7 million people and appear to driving hard towards the port city of Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Monrovia. The government said on Monday it had sent military reinforcements to Buchanan which has been flooded by thousands of people displaced by fighting further along the coast. At least 50,000 displaced people were in Buchanan, according to The Liberian Refugees, Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC). It said more were still arriving from Greenville, a port further east which fell to the rebels in early May. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Monday that the humanitarian situation in Liberia was "extremely grave". It demanded that humanitarian issues be given top priority at next week's peace talks in the Ghanaian town of Akosombo, 100 km north of the capital Accra. "Only two of fifteen counties remain unaffected by the fighting and the war front is only a few kilometres from Monrovia, where thousands of displaced people have fled," MSF said in a statement. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said last Friday that renewed fighting had triggered a further displacement of people into Monrovia. About 6,000 people from the coastal town of Cesstos had fled to Buchanan and were on their way to the capital, it added. "Most of the influxes into Buchanan are en route to Monrovia. In view of a possible attack on Buchanan, aid agencies are reluctant to invest significant resources in the area," OCHA said. "The fact that most of them are staying in host communities will significantly erode their coping mechanisms as more and more populations are displaced." OCHA said northern Liberia had remained a "no go area" for two months due to heavy fighting between LURD rebels, said by diplomats to be backed by Guinea, and forces loyal to Liberian President Charles Taylor. Preliminary talks between rebel leaders and the official facilitator of the Liberian peace process, former Nigerian president Adusalami Abubakar, were due to be held in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, this week. A five-man LURD delegation led by the movement's secretary-general, Joe T. Gbalah, arrived in Freetown on Saturday. The MODEL representatives and Abubakar himself were expected there on Monday. Abubakar has been appointed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to bring both sides of the Liberian conflict to the negotiating table. The US charge d'affaires in Monrovia said: "The US is working to ensure that the Ghana talks are successful. [We] firmly support the Liberian peace initiative." But he warned that any future financial and technical assistance from the US to the peace process would depend on the seriousness of the parties involved. MSF said recent fighting at the port of Harper near the border with Cote d'Ivoire had forced its medical staff to evacuate on foot to Tabou, in western Ivory Coast. Before Harper fell to MODEL forces a week ago, the MSF doctors and nurses there had dealt with about 2,000 consultations and 200 hospital admissions per month. "Only Margibi and Grand Bassa counties (the areas between Monrovia and Buchanan) are spared the fighting," MSF said. "The Montserrado camps, a few kilometers from Monrovia, have been attacked and looted twice. 50,000 people find themselves trapped between the war front, the sea and Saint Paul river." Officials in Monrovia told IRIN on Monday that the government had tightened security in all the areas it controlled to avoid rebel infiltration. It had also dispatched more troops to Buchanan, they said. The government has alleged that MODEL forces, which diplomats say are backed by Cote d'Ivoire, received arms deliveries at Harper last week from an unidentified foreign military helicopter. Meanwhile, Sierra Leone's ambassador to Liberia, Patrick Foyah, told IRIN that the Liberian government was still no nearer to handing over the body of mercenary warlord Sam Bockarie who was killed in mysterious circumstances by Liberian government forces on April 28. Bockarie was a former rebel leader in Sierra Leone who had been indicted for crimes against humanity by a UN-backed special court in Freetown. For the past four years he had led a group of mercenaries who had been fighting in support of Taylor in Liberia. In recent months his band had also joined up with rebel forces in the west of Cote d'Ivoire. The Liberian government said Bockarie was killed while trying to cross back into Liberia, but diplomatic sources in Monrovia saidhe was executed by Taylor's men in Monrovia after an argument with the Liberian president. The court in Freetown has demanded Bockarie's body for forensic identification. "It was my expectation that the body would be here by now," Foyah said in Freetown on Monday. "It is of concern to my government [but] as I speak to you the situation is uncertain."