LIBERIA: Hungry Liberians stormed into Monrovia's port to grab food yesterday as rebel fighters packed up to hand it over to US-backed West African peacekeepers and pull out of the battered capital.
The new president, Mr Moses Blah, said fighter aircraft from a floating US task force would soon start patrols to help bring peace, after the flight into exile of deposed president Charles Taylor raised hopes of an end to nearly 14 years of war.
The rebels have promised to pull out of the port by today to allow food shipments to hundreds of thousands of famished people in a city where recent fighting left 2,000 dead.
However hundreds of people could not wait. Men, women and children scrambled through containers and ripped open sacks in a frantic search for any aid stocks still left. Rebels fired shots in the air to halt the chaos, panicking looters who ran for cover with bags of cornmeal on their heads.
Civilians have been the main victims of untrained young fighters on both sides, who delight in murder, rape and pillage and are still dug in along the front line cutting through a city where the smell of death lingers.
Liberians want US troops intervene in a country founded by freed American slaves, but Washington is wary of any deep involvement. Memories are still sharp of the bloody US debacle in Somalia a decade ago.
Mr Blah said after a meeting with the US ambassador that fighter jets would soon start patrolling the skies. Three US warships are anchored off Monrovia with a 2,300-strong marine task force. So far, Washington has said the only prospect for intervention would be small groups of marines - maybe five or six-strong - to help with aid.
A senior United Nations humanitarian official, who arrived to help co-ordinate relief for the war-wrecked city, said the UN was looking at a two-year plan to rebuild Liberia. - (Reuters)