Rebels who hold much of Liberia's capital announced today that they will pull out of the devastated city by noon Thursday and leave it to a growing peacekeeping force that will attempt to restore order following the resignation of President Charles Taylor and his flight into exile.
| That'll be easier without them there... |
Residents and refugees crammed into Monrovia have been clamoring for food, but rebels control the port and its bounty of humanitarian aid. "We have no reason to maintain our forces at the free port now," said Sekou Fofana, a rebel official. "For reasons of humanity we are leaving the port." The announcement by Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, known as LURD, followed a meeting with U.S. Ambassador John Blaney, Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner, who arrived by helicopter this morning from the USS Iwo Jima anchored off the Liberian coast, and the Nigerian general who heads a West African peacekeeping force, Brig. Gen. Festus Okonkwo. |