Multinational Force Reports Winning Control of Liberia Capital From Rebels
West African troops using tanks and jet bombers have won control of the capital of Liberia from Charles Taylor’s rebels, the army commander said Thursday.
The change cleared the way for an interim government and the arrival of desperately needed food supplies in Monrovia.
The five-nation army sent on Aug. 5 to try to stop Liberia’s civil war has forced Taylor’s rebels back into Monrovia’s eastern suburb of Paynesville, Brig. Gen. Joshua Dogonyaro of Nigeria said.
A rival rebel leader, Prince Johnson, pulled his fighters from central Monrovia this week at Dogonyaro’s request. A third force in Monrovia, the remnants of the army of slain President Samuel K. Doe, was holed up in and around the presidential mansion.
Some Doe soldiers were reported fighting beside the West Africans.
The war began with Taylor’s rebels invading from Ivory Coast last December to oust a Doe government they called corrupt. In February, Johnson and his fighters split from the Taylor forces.
The Economic Community of West African States, which sent the multinational army, renewed an appeal for emergency food for people starving in Monrovia, a city of 400,000.
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