Tens of thousands of famished Liberians swept across Monrovia bridges in search of food and family today as rebel fighters released their month-long grip so the capital could be reunited.
The first ship carrying food after weeks of clashes docked with high-energy biscuits and other supplies from the United Nations World Food Programme. A US plane brought more aid.
With wheelbarrows, pots and plastic bags, the hungry crowds surged towards the port area, where West African peacekeepers were deployed with the help of US Marines yesterday as rebels pulled back beyond the outskirts.
Most of Monrovia's aid stocks were in the port when rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) grabbed it last month in the most ferocious of a series of attacks since June that left some 2,000 people dead.
Food looted from the port is now for sale cheaply on what was the rebel side of the front line.
With their mission to overthrow President Charles Taylor accomplished after he flew into exile on Monday, the rebels agreed to pull back to give a chance to talks on ending strife that has racked Liberia for 14 years and poisoned the region.
"I think the process of healing of Liberia must begin now," said newly arrived UN envoy Jacques Paul Klein, a veteran American diplomat and retired US Air Force major-general.
"The war, the fighting, the killing, the human rights abuses of the past, I don't think we must ever again allow those to occur here," he said, warning the rebels that they could also be held accountable for crimes.
Leaders of the two main rebel factions met new Liberian President Moses Blah in Ghana yesterday, but there was little sign of the quick breakthrough regional leaders had been hoping would lead to a full peace deal by the weekend.