Peace mission silences Monrovia's guns
Trapped residents of Liberia’s embattled capital emerged from hiding places by the tens of thousands today to welcome what they hoped was the advance guard of an Afro American peace force.
In Ghana, key West African leaders gathered under US and UN pressure to set a firm deployment date of first troops of a peace mission, delayed for weeks amid debt-strapped West African nations’ quest for funding.
The Liberian capital Monrovia, blasted with shells and littered with bullet casings after eight weeks of rebel-government battles for the capital, the arrival of the ten man scouting team seemed to bring peace – for a few hours.
Nearly two weeks of mortar bombardments and machine-gun battles over bridges leading to the government-held city centre halted, and starving families scurried out in search of food.
“We are hungry, but seeing these people we are full this morning,” businessman Mohammed Dauda, 31, said, as refugees poured out of hiding places, waving handkerchiefs and flashing peace signs. “We hope this marks the beginning of the end.”
Rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy opened attacks on Monrovia in early June, pressing home a three year campaign to topple President Charles Taylor, a UN-indicted warlord behind 14 years of near-perpetual conflict in the once-prosperous West African nation.
Fighting has killed more than 1,000 civilians and left besieged capital desperately short of food and clean water, with cholera and other diseases rampant.
