Airlift Gets Most Americans Out of Embattled Liberia

The United States has evacuated most Americans from Liberia, and the situation in the country’s strife-torn capital is becoming calmer, U.S. officials said Saturday.

At the same time, U.N. agencies reported that American military personnel have begun to help distribute food to areas beyond the U.S. Embassy compound in Monrovia, the capital. American military escorts helped bring two trucks, carrying 22 tons of wheat, to a complex outside Monrovia where at least 5,000 Liberians are said to be in critical need of food in a country tormented by a new round of factional warfare and armed looting.

“We’re very relieved the Americans were able to come in and do that for us,” said Michael Ross, a spokesman for the United Nations’ World Food Program. “It’s the first food those people have seen since the fighting started.”

The World Food Program had been trying to distribute food for days. But each time, the efforts were halted by sniper fire. At one point, the agency had asked U.S. military officials to transport food by military helicopters. But the idea was dropped because the conditions on the ground were unsafe for the helicopters to land.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in a CNN interview Saturday, rejected suggestions by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that the United States is doing what amounts to social work in Liberia. “Right now our first obligation is to see to the safety of Americans,” Christopher said.

By 11 a.m. Saturday, U.S. military personnel had transported 458 Americans and more than 1,000 others from the chaotic West African country. The State Department had estimated Friday that about 470 Americans were known to be in Liberia.

U.S. military personnel are airlifting the Americans by helicopter from Monrovia to neighboring Sierra Leone. By midday Saturday, they had flown about 50 sorties, each one carrying about 30 people.

Officials said a handful of American personnel have agreed to stay on after the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy compound.

“We’re just continuing with the evacuation,” a Pentagon spokesman said. “We have no indication that Americans are targets.”

Another administration official said there is still sporadic small-arms fire in Monrovia and that it is too dangerous to go outside after dark. But the official said the country’s warring factions appear to be working once again on resolving the conflict.

According to U.N. officials, a fragile cease-fire seemed to be holding in Monrovia but armed bands were still roaming the streets there. World Food Program officials in Monrovia reported that tens of thousands of Liberians in the capital are homeless and are wandering aimlessly from one neighborhood to another.

And they said there are reports that heavy fighting has broken out in Buchanan, Liberia’s second-largest city.

The new unrest erupted earlier this month when the ruling council governing the country fired the leader of one faction, Roosevelt Johnson, from his job as minister of rural development and accused him of murder. The charge stemmed from a firefight involving Johnson’s forces.

Johnson’s forces then rebelled, touching off the latest wave of factional fighting.