LIBERIA: After weeks of intense pressure from attacking rebels and international critics, Liberian President Mr Charles Taylor is due to step down today, writes Declan Walsh in Monrovia.
In a video released last night, Mr Taylor confirmed his departure, blaming the US for his downfall and comparing his persecution to that of Jesus. "I am being forced into exile by the world superpower," said Mr Taylor, sitting solemnly in front of a Liberian flag and a pile of books. "I would be the whipping boy."
He blamed Britain for a UN arms embargo and accused the US of supporting the rebels that have encircled him in Monrovia, calling them a "surrogate force" of President George Bush.
Africa's most powerful leaders - Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria - are expected to arrive in the war-ravaged country this morning to ensure Mr Taylor's departure. He is due to hand power to his deputy, Mr Moses Blah, a close ally. Nigeria has offered him exile in the southern town of Calabar.
Mr Taylor, who is wanted on war crimes charges abroad and blamed for 14 years of chaos at home, presented himself as a martyr who realised he could "no longer see the blood of our people wasted".
Allegations that he made millions from conflict diamonds were "black, black lies". And comparing himself to Jesus being persecuted by Pontius Pilate, he said: "I found myself in that same position."
However the speech will be seen by few Monrovia residents, as televisions were a prize possession of rampaging looters, many of them Taylor's forces.
Many are preoccupied with the search for food while aid agencies worry about fuel, which has risen to $30 a gallon. A ceasefire sparked by the Nigerian deployment is holding but on the streets there was widespread apprehension about today's transition. The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels have threatened to attack again if power passes to Mr Blah, a close Taylor ally.
Mr Blah told reporters he was "100 per cent" certain that he could bring peace to Liberia. "This is over. We should lay down the guns and smoke the peace pipe," he said.
Fears are growing that a violent vacuum will follow Mr Taylor's departure. Only a fraction of the 500 Nigerian peacekeepers in Liberia have deployed to the city centre, and street patrols have not yet started.
On Carey Street, a week ago the target of heavy rebel shelling, residents worried about a possible looting spree by government militia fighters.
"We are really worried," said Mr Adam Sesay. "If peacekeepers do not deploy, we don't know what will happen tomorrow."
"Anything might happen," added a neighbour, Mr Hassan Bass. Monrovia's humanitarian crisis continues to deepen. The city is divided in two - behind government lines there is little food or clean water, on the rebel side there is hardly any medicine.
A stock of 7,000 tonnes of UN food in the city port had been one hope. On Saturday Nigerian and American officials were brought to the port by the rebels, who have controlled it for weeks.
The worst fears were confirmed. The UN warehouses were empty, save for a few hundred bags.
Offices had been ransacked and human excrement smeared the floors.
Elsewhere in the port, hundreds of shipping containers had been torn open and looted. By the water's edge, two bodies floated in a pool of oil and grime.
Outside the UN warehouse, LURD spokesman Mr Sekou Fofana denied his troops were responsible for the pillage. "We're assuming all of this was done by Taylor's men," he said.
Earlier in the day this reporter witnessed LURD soldiers looting containers in the same area. At the makeshift hospital in the nearby city brewery, two naked men were slowly dying of gangrene-infected wounds. A Red Cross convoy dropped off some medicines but did not carry them away. "There was no point, it was too late for them," said an aid worker.
Mr Taylor is due to relinquish power today. But in the closing words of his address last night, he hinted his career might not yet be over. "God willing, I will be back," he said.