Commercial rice and fuel ships arrive in Monrovia this week

Two ships carrying large commercial cargoes of rice and fuel are due to arrive in the Liberian capital Monrovia later this week, putting an end to severe shortages of both essential commodities, local importers said on Monday. A cargo ship carrying 14,000 tonnes of rice - the favourite food of Liberia's three million population - is due to dock on Wednesday, Chawker Kadouh, the importer, told IRIN. But he said it would it would probably take several weeks to unload the ship since all the port's cargo handling equipment was destroyed or looted during the battle between government and rebel forces for control of Monrovia in June and July. A second ship carrying over two million gallons of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel is due to arrive on Friday, but should be able to offload its cargo at the port's undamaged oil terminal within 12 hours, said Mohamed Kafel, general manager of the fuel importation and distribution company GEPCO. Kafel said GEPCO had been able to preserve fuel stocks during the fighting, which forced commerce in Monrovia to close down for two months, but had resumed the distribution of diesel to local filling stations on Sunday. The black market price of petrol and diesel reached a peak of US $26 a gallon last week, but had fallen to just over $4 on Monday. Before rebels launched their first attack on Monrovia on June 6, petrol retailed for $3 a gallon in the city. "We are distributing fuel right now.....any quantity you need," Khalef said, adding that he had already delivered supplies to the US embassy, the Firestone rubber company and several non-governmental organisations. Khalef said the new fuel consignment was coming in aboard GEPCO's own tanker. Kadouh said the rice ship could offload sacks of rice onto the quayside with its own cranes, but he was desperate for fork lift trucks to be able to move the grain into warehouses. "This is the main problem," he said. "We have no equipment left at the port at all. If I had equipment, it would take me three weeks (to offload the ship)." Kadouh said he needed about 10 forklift trucks to handle the cargo, but the UN World Food Programme, which is bringing in 2,200 tonnes of pulses, vegetable oil and corn soya blend at the weekend, was only planning to bring in "one or two" forklift trucks to get cargo at the port moving again. The WFP has lost more than half its 10,000 tonnes of food stocks in the port of Monrovia to looters. Much of the food was taken last week during an orgy of theft shortly before fighters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement handed over control of the port to Nigerian peacekeeping troops.