Commercial vehicles venture to the north and southeast

Commercial vehicles were making their first trips into previously inaccessible areas of northern and southeastern Liberia, opening up parts of the country which had been cut off for nine months by intensive fighting between government forces loyal to former president Charles Taylor and rebels. Taxi and mini-bus drivers in Monrovia's eastern suburbs of Paynesville and Red Light told IRIN on Friday that the security situation along the highway from the capital to the north had improved due to regular patrols by United Nations peacekeepers (UNMIL). They warned, however, that there was still a large presence of former government fighters and rebels belonging to the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) group, mainly along the road from Gbarnga towards Ganta in the north. The former combatants from both the government side and LURD, the drivers said, were screening passengers and extorting money. "UNMIL soldiers are deployed as far as Totota [109 km north on Monrovia]. LURD fighters are stationed at Iron Gate checkpoint in Gbarnga where they issue clearances to our passengers. But the rebels demand we pay for those clearances," Isaac Flomo, one of the drivers told IRIN. Another driver of a four-wheel Nissan Patrol, Zizi Mulba said: "Government soldiers in Ganta are also screening passengers entering the city." At both Paynesville and Red Light, taxis and mini-buses were loading passengers on Friday heading to Gbarnga, Ganta and Sanniquelle. Gbarnga, the provincial headquarters of Bong county in central Liberia 150 km north-east of Monrovia, is controlled by LURD rebels, while Ganta is 247 km northeast. Sanniquelle, near the Guinean border, is the headquarters of Nimba county and is controlled by former government fighters. Other taxis came in from the port city of Greenville in Sinoe County, 250 km southeast of Monrovia. The drivers said they passed through Buchanan which is controlled by rebels of Liberia's smaller rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). The drivers said most passengers were coming to Monrovia and very few were traveling to Ganta and Gbarnga. Passengers aboard the taxis from Greenville told IRIN they had come to rejoin their families in Monrovia. The UNMIL Force Commander General Daniel Opande recently declared open the road leading to the north of the country. He said UNMIL, which has about 5,000 troops in Liberia, would deploy beyond Totota once it got more troops.