LIBERIA: FIGHTING BETWEEN RIVAL MILITIAS IN MONROVIA/ WEST AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS CLASH WITH LOOTERS AT THE PORT

Record ID: 376091

  • Title: LIBERIA: FIGHTING BETWEEN RIVAL MILITIAS IN MONROVIA/ WEST AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS CLASH WITH LOOTERS AT THE PORT
  • Date: 15th May 1996
  • Summary: MONROVIA, LIBERIA (MAY 15 AND 16, 1996) (MAY 15) 1. SLV DEAD BODY AT MAMBA POINT DIPLOMATIC DISTRICT 0.07 2. SLV FIGHTER PAINTING SLOGANS ON LOOTED CAR (2 SHOTS) 0.18 3. LV MAN FIRING RIFLE AT CHECKPOINT 0.27 4. SLV ENTRANCE TO MONROVIA FREE PORT/U.N. TRUCKS FOR WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME WAITING FOR GO-AHEAD TO TAKE FOOD TO GREYSTONE COMPOUND, WHERE 20,000 CIVILIANS ARE SHELTERING NEXT TO THE U.S. EMBASSY (2 SHOTS) 0.43 5. SV SHIPS DOWN AT CITY DOCK (2 SHOTS) 0.58 6. SV REFUGEES ON BOATS 7. SV U.N. CHARTERED SHIP PANTHER WHICH ARRIVED ON MAY 16 WITH MEDICINES 1.15 8. SV PEOPLE GATHERING OUTSIDE THE ENTRANCE/ MIX OF VENDORS AND SOME PEOPLE HOPING TO LEAVE BY SEA (2 SHOTS) 1.26 9. SV WEST AFRICAN ECOMOG PEACEKEEPING FORCES DEPLOYING TANK 1.34 (MAY 16) 10. SLV CHECKPOINT MANNED BY FIGHTERS LOYAL TO ROOSEVELT JOHNSON (4 SHOTS) 2.08 11. SLV/SV JOHNSON'S FIGHTERS DANCING, ONE WITH BALLOON TIED TO BARREL OF HIS GUN (4 SHOTS) 2.32 12. SV MARKET NEAR BARCLAY TRAINING CENTRE BARRACKS, STRONGHOLD OF ROOSEVELT JOHNSON'S SUPPORTERS 2.36 13. SV INTERVIEW WITH MADDISON WION, JOHNSON'S SPOKESMAN AND DEPUTY, CALLING ON INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO HELP BY PROMOTING ELECTIONS SO FUTURE OF LIBERIA CAN BE DECIDED "THROUGH THE BALLOT BOX NOT THE BARREL OF A GUN" (ENGLISH) 2.56 13. GV SHELL-DAMAGED BUILDINGS 3.10 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 30th May 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MONROVIA, LIBERIA
  • City:
  • Country: Liberia AFRICA
  • Reuters ID: LVA7PPE12Z7BWIMQ6L3MWBYH7W0
  • Story Text: INTRO: Refugees tried to flee the Liberian capital on wednesday before fighting between rival militias flared again.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethnic Krahn fighters attacked militiamen loyal to faction leader Charles Taylor on Thursday (May 16) and pushed them back from frontline positions.

    Several hundred Ghanaians, Nigerians, Liberians and other West Africans waited on a Russian freighter, hoping to flee fighting in the Liberian capital by sea on Wednesday.

    Taylor launched Liberia's civil war six years ago and is the dominant member of an interim government agreed on last year.

    Fighting started in Monrovia on April 6 when police and fighters loyal to Taylor, who is a vice-chairman in the ruling State Council, and his present ally Alhaji Kromah tried to arrest Krahn faction leader Roosevelt Johnson on murder charges. Johnson in now in Ghana.

    Maddison Wion, Johnson's spokesman and deputy, called on the international community to help promote elections so that the future of Liberia could be decided by the ballot box, not the gun.


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