Defence minister reports fresh fighting in the southeast

Liberian defence minister Daniel Chea has reported fierce fighting between government troops and rebels in Paynes Town, a village in the coastal county of Sinoe, 250 km southeast of Monrovia. Sinoe is south of Grand Gedeh, the county on the border with Cote d'Ivoire that has seen much fighting in recent weeks. Other border counties affected by fighting include Nimba, north of Grand Gedeh. Nimba borders on both Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire. Chea, who said he had just returned from the southeast, informed an emergency session of parliament on Monday that rebels had advanced on Paynes Town last week from Zwedru, a rebel-held town in Grand Gedeh. The emergency session was held to discuss the conflict in Liberia. Although the defence minister blamed the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) for the fighting in the southeast, a new armed group called the Movement for Democracy in Liberia was reported to be operating in that part of the country. Chea reported that the upsurge of fighting in Sinoe had triggered a mass exodus of civilians from neighbouring Rivercess County towards the port of Buchanan in Grand Bassa county, which is further west. "What we have done [...] is that we have stepped up our checkpoints and joint security presence along the Buchanan-Greenville Highway to contain the combat and possible infiltration of the insurgents," Chea said. [Greenville is the main town in Sinoe.] On the military situation in Nimba, the defence minister said Ganta, the county's main town, was "very tense". He said government forces were fighting to retake the town, which was in the hands of the LURD. "Dissident forces have taken full control of the Liberian-Guinean border line," Chea said. "This aspect of the war has a diplomatic implication and the Foreign Ministry is pursuing this matter." Meanwhile, the whereabouts of three of four Liberian journalists who went missing during fighting in Nimba and Grand Gedeh are now know by their respective media houses. The Inquirer newspaper's managing editor, Philip N. Wisseh, told IRIN over the weekend that the the wife of journalist Grody Dorbor "called us from the United States and broke the news that he is at a bordering town between Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire in Grand Gedeh County and she has been in telephone contact with him". Two of three journalists from the Talking Drum Studio, Oscar Dolo and Nyahn Flomo, had been located in a forest in Nimba County where they had sought refuge after fleeing Ganta when rebels attacked the town three weeks ago, TDS staff told IRIN. They said the search continued for the third journalist, William Quiwea, who had been based in Grand Gedeh.