Rebels hijack Oxfam car near Monrovia port

Liberian rebels hijacked an Oxfam four-wheel-drive vehicle at gunpoint on Saturday in an area of Monrovia that is supposed to be under the control of Nigerian peacekeeping troops, Rosemary Kadura, Oxfam’s country programme manager said. The assault occurred in broad daylight on the main avenue leading from central Monrovia to the port, just a few hundred metres from a Nigerian checkpoint at the port gates, she told IRIN. Vehicles of the United Nations and non-governmental relief agencies use this stretch of highway constantly and assault helicopters from a US task force offshore frequently patrol overhead. Kadura said seven fighters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement, riding in a white pick-up truck, blocked the path of the Oxfam vehicle. They then threatened the Oxfam driver and his passenger with automatic rifles and dragged them out of the vehicle. They then drove off the Oxfam Toyota Landcruiser into a slum at high speed, knocking down and seriously injuring a pedestrian on the way. The hijacking was immediately reported to the Nigerian contingent defending the port, but the captain in charge said he could not do much to help recover the stolen vehicle, Kadura added. The incident occurred on Bushrod Island, an area of Monrovia which until last Thursday was under LURD control. The rebel movement was due to have withdrawn from the area after handing over control of security there to the Nigerian peacekeepers. However, on Sunday, three days later, large numbers of gun-toting LURD guerrillas continued to drive openly round Bushrod Island. The handful of Nigerian troops manning checkpoints appeared to be doing little to control them. The situation was mirrored in central Monrovia, where armed government troops and militiamen continued to be much in evidence on the streets three days after they were supposed to have withdrawn from the city. So far only about 1,000 Nigerian troops, the vanguard of a West African stabilisation force that is due to number 3,250, have been flown into Liberia. The UN special envoy to Liberia, Jacques Klein, said on Friday that at least 5,000 peacekeepers were needed to guarantee security in Monrovia alone. Kadura said Oxfam had now lost two of its five cars in Monrovia to LURD. A first vehicle was looted in April.