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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - The West African nation of Guinea violated a U.N. arms embargo to supply weapons to Liberian rebels, who "indiscriminately" shelled residential areas and the U.S. Embassy in their final assault on Liberia's capital this summer, a leading human rights group said Wednesday. New York-based Human Rights Watch called for a suspension of U.S. and other foreign military assistance to Guinea, which it said was still reportedly supplying arms to the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy rebel group. In the Guinean capital, Conakry, foreign ministry spokesman Aboubacar Cisse said his government had not seen the report,...

While some 12,000 fighters, most of them nominally working for the government, have turned in their weapons (for cash and other goods), the main rebel group, LURD, is holding out for more loot. In the last few days, armed LURD men have blocked peacekeepers from advancing north of the capital to set up a disarmament camp for LURD fighters. LURD leaders want more government leadership jobs (and access to foreign aid money) now, not later. The UN only has about 6,000 of the authorized 15,000 peace keepers on hand. Many of the countries that pledged troops have been slow in...

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks September 4, 2003 Posted to the web September 4, 2003 Tens of thousands of frightened civilians continued to flee on foot from a fresh outbreak of fighting aroung the town of Totota in central Liberia on Thursday. Relief workers said that over the past three days about 60,000 had fled on foot from Totota to Salala, 20 km further south along the main road to the capital Monrovia. There they had crowded in an existing camp for people displaced by Liberia's 14-year-old civil war, tripling its population from 30,000 to 90,000 in just 48 hours....

MONROVIA, Aug 24 (AFP) - Many civilians were killed and villages torched in a massacre in Nimba county north-east of Monrovia, a senior Liberian military official told AFP late Sunday. "I have received a report from our security officers that many villages there had burned down and that there have been lots of massacres," said General Benjamin Yeaten, deputy head of the government army. "My understanding is that there was a massacre but we are not exactly sure how many people have been killed, it could be a hundred, it could be a thousand," he added, without saying who...

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) -- Liberia's rebels and government picked a Monrovia businessman to lead the country's post-war transition government, and international mediators closed peace talks after 78 tumultuous days. The chief mediator, retired Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, officially announced selection of Gyude Bryant to head the two-year power-sharing accord, and sent warring parties home to implement it. "The first step of unifying the people starts from today,'' Abubakar said. "Do not let your people down.'' Selection of the transitional government's leaders follows Monday's signing of a peace accord, made possible by warlord-president Charles Taylor's Aug. 11 resignation and flight into...

<p>MONROVIA, Liberia (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of starving Liberians have been breaking through barricades in Monrovia in search of food and familes after rebels relaxed their grip on the capital.</p> <p>Meanwhile Friday the first ship carrying food aid to Liberia's capital after weeks of fighting docked and aid workers are preparing to feed thousands of famished people, the U.N. World Food Programme said.</p>

<p>MONROVIA, Liberia &#8212; Rebels lifted their siege of Liberia's capital yesterday, and 200 American troops landed to support a West African peace force, breaking off a 10-week campaign that routed the president, killed more than 1,000 civilians and left hundreds of thousands trapped and starving.</p>

US forces pour into Liberia with M16s and razor wire By Declan Walsh in Monrovia 15 August 2003 The siege is finally over. American marines landed dramatically in Monrovia yesterday, clearing the way for Nigerian peace-keepers to seize control of the battered city and end a mounting humanitarian crisis. Three days after the pariah President, Charles Taylor, fled into exile, US warplanes and helicopters screamed over Liberia's capital while Nigerian troops were pushing into rebel territory. A giant crowd of dancing and singing Liberians gave them a riotous welcome as they crossed frontline bridges, scenes of the most chaotic fighting...

Liberians hail US troops as rebels back away Agencies Thursday August 14, 2003 Residents of Liberia's besieged capital, Monrovia, poured onto the streets today, praising west African peacekeepers and a contingent of US marines as rebel forces backed away from the city. The US ambassador, John Blaney, and rebel leaders shook hands on the middle of a front-line bridge patrolled by Nigerian troops, marking the end of two months of siege. Rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) ceded control of Monrovia's port, a move that will allow food and drinking water to flow to starving civilians. Rebels...

Wednesday August 13, 12:58 AM Liberian rebels demand power after Taylor's exit Liberian rebels rejected the country's new president and demanded control of an interim government, as US troops sought to open a gateway to the war-ravaged nation for humanitarian aid. "We want to lead the interim government," Sekou Fofana, the deputy secretary general of Liberia's main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), told AFP. "We will never accept to serve under Moses Blah," he said. Former warlord Charles Taylor resigned as president on Monday and handed over power to Blah, the vice president, in a formal...

New Fighting Erupts in Liberia with Taylor Gone Tue August 12, 2003 08:05 AM ET By David Clarke MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) - New fighting raged in Liberia Tuesday a day after former President Charles Taylor flew into exile amid hopes his departure would help bring peace to the war-shattered West African country. Liberia's government and a rebel faction called Model accused each other of starting the latest bloodshed as the rebels made a big advance to just a few miles from the international airport outside the capital Monrovia. Meanwhile another rebel faction, holding the port that is key to getting...

<p>The Liberian LURD rebels, a band of several thousand guerrillas known for kidnapping, torture, and rape of women and girls, reached a long-sought goal yesterday when President Charles Taylor stepped down and fled into exile.</p> <p>"The war is over," said Sekou Conneh, the group's leader who is now in Ghana, where he takes part in peace negotiations.</p>

Aug. 11 — MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) - A top Liberian rebel official in the capital Monrovia said the country's war was over on Monday after the resignation of Charles Taylor as president, as long as Taylor now left the country as planned. "For us in LURD, the war is over," said Sekou Fofana of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). "Once he leaves Liberia today we are not going to fight. The suffering of Liberians is over."

Liberian Rebels Raise Stakes in Broken Capital Fri August 8, 2003 08:13 AM ET By David Clarke MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia's rebels added tough new conditions for opening Monrovia's desperately needed port on Friday as West African peacekeepers faced the challenge of reuniting the hungry and broken city. A growing humanitarian catastrophe has intensified the need for urgent access to the rebel-held port so food and supplies can be brought to hundreds of thousands of refugees packed into the rest of Monrovia. As the Nigerian peacekeepers settled into their new base, the rebels threatened to continue their war if President...

MONROVIA (Reuters) - West African peacekeepers swooped into Liberia by helicopter on Monday, as hundreds of war-weary Liberians danced for joy in the capital's ruined streets on hopes of an end to 14 years of bloodshed. Nigerian soldiers in flak jackets and helmets leapt out into driving rain at the international airport near the war-battered capital Monrovia, as hundreds of Liberians welcomed them with cheers and chants of "No more war, we want peace." In Rome, the leader of the main rebel group, LURD, which controls Monrovia's vital port, said his fighters would withdraw once the Nigerians moved in....

MONROVIA, Aug 3 (AFP) - The soldiers approach at a run, supporting a wounded comrade. Bullets whistle around them, smash into the ground, explode on the guard rail of the bridge. The men send off a rapid volley of covering fire. They get the wounded man into the back of a jeep and there he dies in the arms of a comrade who bellows his grief and anger. An officer arrives, revolver in his hand. "You are fighting for Charles Taylor; don't cry like a woman, you know why you are in battle. Back to the front! Back to...

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- President Charles Taylor is reconsidering his pledge to cede power, seeing it as only encouraging rebel attacks, his spokesman said Tuesday. The president has been angered by the rebel capture of Buchanan, the nation's second-largest city, on Monday. "We are of a different opinion now in the government about the validity of the overtures of the president to step down,'' spokesman Vaanii Paasawe said in Liberia, the capital. The statement marked a change in tone by Taylor, who has repeatedly pledged to resign even though he then hedged or reneged outright on his promises. Most...

Liberia's Second City Falls to Rebels Residents Say Mon July 28, 2003 03:06 PM ET MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) - Liberia's second city and port of Buchanan appeared to have fallen to the rebel faction known as Model Monday as rebels fired in the air and broke into shops, residents said. Model attacked Buchanan while President Charles Taylor's forces were tied down fighting rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) in the capital Monrovia. Officials said control of Buchanan remained unclear.

Friday, July 25, 2003 ADVERTISEMENT MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - Heavy shelling hit the refugee-crowded neighbourhood of the U.S. Embassy on Friday, killing at least 11 civilians, including several children. One shell in the barrage, the worst since Monday in a near week-long rebel attack on Monrovia, struck inside the U.S. Embassy compound, exploding harmlessly on rocky ground, a U.S. official said. Fifteen to 20 shells hit within 10 minutes at the height of the attack, sending residents of downtown and the blocks around the high-walled, heavily-guarded U.S. Embassy compound running, terrified, for cover. A shell at the open of the...

MONROVIA, Liberia - Rebels took control of a key bridge at Liberia's capital Wednesday in fighting that shattered a day-old cease-fire pledge, sending thousands of families fleeing in a city desperately short of food, water and shelter. Separately, West African foreign ministers meeting in Dakar, Senegal promised to deploy two Nigerian battalions to Liberia within days - vanguard of what ministers said should be a 3,250-strong international force to bring peace to the devastated nation. Explosions boomed in the capital, Monrovia, on Wednesday, one day after rebel leaders announced a unilateral cease-fire. "This morning we're still under attack," Defense...