Fighting Continues in Liberia Despite Evacuation of Warlord
Rebels, many of them teenagers armed with machine guns, fought furious street battles Saturday, shattering hopes that the evacuation of warlord Roosevelt Johnson would spur moves toward peace.
The fresh violence came one day after U.S. Marines airlifted Johnson to Ghana for peace talks. But archrival Charles Taylor vowed not to abandon his forces to attend the talks. And Johnson’s men continued to fight without him.
The warfare was the worst since a 10-day cease-fire crumbled on Monday. Two main bridges leading into the West African city were under heavy fire. Taylor’s forces repeatedly shelled the military barracks that Johnson had seized and occupied for the last month.
“The fighting now going on is intended to diminish the ability of Johnson’s men to make war,” Taylor said at his headquarters in the suburb of Congo Town.
Taylor said he had no intention of joining Johnson in Accra, Ghana, for talks to begin Wednesday on ending the 6-year-old Liberian war.
Tens of thousands of Liberians were fleeing the city and its outlying suburbs on Saturday, heading for rural areas already plagued by disease and serious shortages of food and medicine.
Thousands of other Liberians rushed to board ships that were leaving Monrovia.
The U.S. military on Saturday evacuated another 33 people to Freetown, including three Americans.
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