Thousands displaced by renewed fighting near airport

Thousands of civilians were displaced by renewed clashes between Liberian government troops and rebel fighters at the weeekend. The fighting took place less than a week after the signing of a peace agreement that was supposed to end 14 years of civil war. Defense Minister Daniel Chea said on Sunday fighters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement attacked government troops on Friday at Baala Bridge, near Ganta, a town on the Guinean border 247 km north of the capital Monrovia. He also told IRIN that fighters of another rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) attacked government positions on Saturday near Roberts international airport, half way between Monrovia and the port city of Buchanan. Relief workers said thousands of people were fleeing the clashes near the airport. “We have received reports that 8,000-10,000 people are again on the move in the southeast. We are preparing an immediate response to their humanitarian and protection concerns,” Ross Mountain, Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia told IRIN. MODEL forces, Chea said, launched the attack on Saturday morning at Lloydsville, near Cotton Tree and Owensgrove villages, 50 km southeast of Monrovia, contravening the peace agreement signed on 18 August by all three warring parties. The agreement, which paved way for a broad-based transitional government to be sworn in 14 October, was meant to signal the immediate end of armed conflict. It required all fighting forces to remain in their present locations and cease hostilities. LURD Chief of Staff, General Aliyu Sheriff, disputed Chea’s claims of renewed fighting near Ganta. But he accused the government of preparing an attack to recapture the strategic town of Gbarnga, the provincial headquarters of Bong County, 45 km south of Ganta. “The entire Bong County has been under our full control since a month ago. No fighting is going on, but government is instead planning to retake Gbarnga,” Sheriff said. Gbarnga is currently inaccessible to relief workers, although the Accra Peace Agreement demands that all fighting groups allow unhindered access by all humanitarian agencies to vulnerable groups throughout the country. Relief workers who visited Cotton Tree and Owensgrove on Saturday said an exodus of displaced people from these villages was heading towards Harbel, the headquarters of the Firestone rubber plantation, near Roberts International Airport. An IRIN correspondent saw hundreds of the displaced people walking in the rain along the highway from Monrovia to Harbel, near the airport, carrying mattresses and other personal belongings on their heads. They were mainly women and children. Chea said the fleeing civilians told him that they could hear heavy shelling from the direction of Compound Number One, a village near Lloydsville. “ECOMIL (the West African military peacekeeping force in Liberia) has been informed about this. MODEL in keeping with the agreement should remain in Buchanan, across the St John River and our forces will remain along the road leading from the river to Monrovia,” Chea told IRIN. Major Ogun Sanya, the ECOMIL spokesman, said the peacekeeping force had not yet deployed troops in Grand Bassa County, where the clashes had been reported, but it was trying to contact MODEL commanders there. MODEL officials were not immediately available for comment, but relief workers in Monrovia said MODEL commanders in Buchanan had told them that government forces had attacked their positions near the city. “The rebels said government militias blocked roads in areas under their control between 14-16 August, and they responded to push the militias back,” one aid worker who had just returned from Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Monrovia, said.