Fighting could disrupt relief activities, agencies warn

The recent resumption of fighting between Liberian government forces and rebels in central Liberia is seriously disrupting efforts by relief agencies to extend their reach into the interior, aid workers warned on Wednesday. Despite the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement on 18 August, the Liberian government has recently lost ground to the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD)in clashes between Gbarnga and Gbatala, more than 100 km north of Monrovia. Government forces have also been pushed back by another rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL)in fighting close to Roberts international airport, 50 km southeast of the capital. Relief workers fear the LURD push south along the main road from Gbarnga towards Monrovia, will cause a particularly large displacement of civilians. The rebels began advancing south from Gbarnga at the weekend. By Wednesday, thousands of frightened civilians were trudging towards Monrovia in heavy rain from as far afield as Totota, a town 110 km north of the capital. Since LURD overan Gbatala, the next town up the road, Totota is now practically on the frontline. It has a population of about 70,000 and until a few days ago a further 75,000 displaced people lived in four camps around the town. But relief workers said that as the fighting approached Totota, many of them had begun leaving. Cyrille Niameogo, the head of UNICEF in Liberia, told IRIN: “We are seriously concerned about the movement of people from the direction of central Liberia. We least expected this to happen. It is easier to have people remaining in their areas than moving from one place to another.” Most of the displaced people in Liberia are in Monrovia. Estimates of their numbers have varied widely, but Ross Mountain, the UN Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia, said on Wednesday that relief agencies had now agreed to a consensus figure of 300,000. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is using a working figure of 500,000 displaced people for the entire country. General Benjamin Yeaten, the Liberian army commander, said on Wednesday that his men were still fighting LURD forces half way between Gbatala and Totota. Yeaten also claimed that government fighters had pushed back MODEL fighters near the remote town of Bahn in Nimba County, 240 km northeast of Monrovia. Liberian state radio reported at the weekend that MODEL had massacred hundreds of civilians in Bahn, but MODEL issued a statement denying the alleged atrocity. “We want ECOMIL (the West African peacekeeping force in Liberia) and the international community to intervene to stop this aggression by LURD and MODEL," Yeaten told IRIN. However the LURD Chief of Staff, General Aliyu Sheriff blamed the government itself for sparking off the latest fighting. He said: “Government fighters attacked our positions in Bong County, near Gbarnga in violation of the peace agreement. We managed to seize brand new military hardware, including GMGs (general machine guns) and RPGs (rocket propelled grenade launchers) from them.” “We will not relent and will pursue them to where they came from. When we get near Monrovia, we will turn them over to ECOMIL,” he told IRIN. However security sources said the Nigerian-led peacekeeping force still did not have enough men on the ground to be able to establish a meaningful presence outside the capital. “ECOMIL would like to deploy yesterday, but there are only 1,550 men in Liberia. Most of these are taken up in Monrovia,” one military expert in Monrovia told IRIN. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday that fighting between government forces and MODEL between the rebel-held port of Buchanan and Roberts international airport over the weekend had also caused thousands of civilians to flee. MODEL blamed the government for provoking these and other recent clashes. “Government forces have launched several unprovoked attacks on MODEL’s position since the departure of (former president Charles) Taylor with the sole purpose of drawing us into unwarranted battle,” it said in a statement on Monday. “We began this armed rebellion with the aim of ousting Charles Taylor, we succeeded. We pleaded that we partake in the management of Liberia following Taylor’s departure, We are allowed. What else should we fight for?” MODEL said. The US government, which has 2,300 marines standing by on warships off the Liberian coast, condemned the latest fighting. It said the renewed violence was jeopardising the peace agreement signed only last week and was hampering relief efforts. In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker criticised all the warring parties for failing to cease hostilities.