Liberian rebels lifted the siege of Monrovia and withdrew from the city yesterday after a display of US military might bolstered the West African peacekeepers and opened the port to badly needed humanitarian aid.
Thousands of people danced and sang as American marines and the Nigerian-led west African troops took over the port and bridges which had split the capital into government and rebel-held zones.
Although little more than 200 marines were deployed, most of them at the airport, they constitute Washington’s biggest peacekeeping operation in Africa since the Somalia debacle a decade ago.
They were supported by Cobra attack helicopters and Harrier jets streaking at roof-level across the city. If that was intended to awe the warring sides, it worked.
Ducking from the noise, fighters on both sides waved and cheered, knowing the flying hardware was a small fraction of the firepower available to the US flotilla offshore.
”I’m so happy to see the Americans landing on my soil. It is a dream. They are our mother and father,” said Jebah Babai (23) part of a throng who watched three CH-46 helicopters disgorge 60 marines and two jeeps.
In full combat gear and carrying light machine guns across a muddy field, the marines seemed surprised to be greeted by civilians blowing kisses.
”Not what I expected,” said one.
Having promised to help a country founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves, President Bush has been cautioned by the Pentagon about launching another foreign military adventure.
Some Liberians grumbled that yesterday’s deployment, though better late than never, was too little.
After two months of siege Monrovia’s 1,3-million people are close to starvation. Beyond the capital, the crisis is feared to be worse, a population surviving on leaves and rainwater in the rubble of a country destroyed by 14 years of anarchy.
The civil war of the past three years is supposed to end now that Charles Taylor is out of the presidency and in exile.
Fighting between government forces and the rebel group Model continues elsewhere in the country but the bigger Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy has maintained a ceasefire and yesterday its promise to end its stranglehold on Monrovia.
A convoy of trucks, cars and motorbikes streamed towards new positions at the Po river eight miles outside the city, allowing the Nigerians and Americans to take the port.
Gunfire sounded, but it was the rebels celebrating. ”I have resigned from the armed forces,” grinned Sekou Dukuly (25) wearing a T-shirt declaring: ”Peace at last.”
One rebel made an apparent reference to hunger with his T-shirt: ”Dearth is a bitch.”
The peace plan clicked into place but chaos and desperation continued. Seizing their last chance, the rebels joined civilians in looting whatever was transportable: mattresses, brooms, computers, maize, cornmeal, and white gloves.
Stacks of the Danish newspaper Politiken were carried on heads and anything with a seal was used to carry petrol.
At their headquarters the rebels shooed a photographer away from a truck loaded with armchairs, paintings and a fridge, but their chief of staff, General Seyou Sheriff, had nothing to hide. ”That fridge? We’ll take that with us. It’s ours. Today is a very good day for the people of Liberia.”
Others, clutching looted tumblers of Martini and cigars, missed their evacuation deadline by staying to watch a man play his harmonica through a megaphone.
Separated for weeks, tens of thousands gathered at each end of two bridges, those on the government side desperate for any remaining UN food stocks.
Nigerian and Ghanaian soldiers, ordered to keep the bridges closed for the moment, erected razor wire and swung rubber hoses at the crowds.
For some the wait was too much and they plunged into the swamp water. In his underpants, dripping wet and panting, David Williams (19) made it to the other side. ”Food, take me to the food,” he said.
Behind him bobbed the bodies of seven others who had the hunger to try but not the strength to make it. – Guardian Unlimited Â