Curfew imposed in Gbarnga after ethnic fighting

One person was killed and four were wounded in ethnic clashes between the Kpelle and Mandingo communities on Monday in the central Liberian town of Gbarnga at the weekend, relief workers said. UN peackeepers subsequently imposed a curfew to restore calm, they added. Relief workers arriving from Gbarnga, 150 km northeast of the capital Monrovia, told IRIN on Tuesday that the incident was sparked off by a quarrel between a former fighter of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group and a local resident over a girl. The arguement soon took on an ethnic dimension since the LURD fighter was from the Mandingo ethnic group, which is widely spread across northern Liberia, while his rival was from the local Kpelle community. "The conflict between those two men swelled into a large-scale fight after their kinsmen - predominately youths - got involved and tension erupted between the two tribes," one relief worker said. "Members of the two ethnic groups clashed using sticks, iron, cutlasses and knifes," he added. "Because the situation was getting tense and news of the conflict was spreading to nearby villages.....an intervention was made by UN Mission in Liberia troops leading to the imposition of a curfew in Gbarnga," he added. Another relief worker from a local NGO said, "Right now, the tempers of the youths of the two tribes are still high..... it could lead to an uncontrollable conflict." However, UNMIL spokeswoman Margaret Novicki told IRIN on Tuesday that the situation was under control. "The situation in Gbarnga as for now is calm according to reports from our troops on the ground. The sector command instituted a curfew from 10pm to 6am which is still in place as a precautionary measure to ensure that the calm is maintained," Novicki said. Joseph Cornomia, the Bong County Legislator in Liberia's broad-based transitional assembly, told reporters that a mediation team comprising of elders of the two ethnic groups in Monrovia would be dispatched to calm the situation. Cornomia, who is a Kpelle, said, "We have to live peacefully with our Mandingo brothers and sisters. We have been living in the county for more than one hundred years. We have inter-married and it is time to stop whatever our differences." Bong County, of which Gbarnga is the capital, is the main homeland of the Kpelle. They are widely considered to be the largest of the 16 ethnic groups in Liberia. The Mandingo are predominantly traders who have established an influential presence throughout northern Liberia. In 1988 there were clashes between the two communities in and around Gbarnga which resulted in the massive destruction of homes and villages. No deaths were reported on that occasion.