- Title: LIBERIA: HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE FACE HUMANITARIAN DISASTER
- Date: 1st August 2003
- Summary: (U6) MONROVIA, LIBERIA (JULY 30, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV LIBERIAN HEALTH WORKERS WORKING FOR MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES (DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS) WRAPPING BODY OF MAN WHO DIED OF CHOLERA INSIDE BODY BAG, CARRYING BODY ON WHEELBARROW (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. MV HEALTH WORKERS BURYING VICTIM OF CHOLERA IN SHALLOW GRAVE 0.13 3. GV MONROVIA SKYLINE AND BRIDGES FROM HILL 0.17 4. MV HOSPITAL CARING FOR CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM MALNUTRITION, CHILD ON NASAL DRIPS, MOTHERS SITTING NEXT TO CHILDREN; SCU SIGN OUTSIDE HOSPITAL SECTION FOR CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM CHEST AND ABDOMINAL BLEEDING; MV DOCTORS AND PATIENTS (8 SHOTS) 0.47 5. SLV LONG QUEUE OUTSIDE SUPERMARKET, WHICH ONLY OPENS ONE HOUR PER DAY; SCU MONEY CHANGING HANDS; VEGETABLES ON GROUND, BUT UNAFFORDABLE FOR MOST RESIDENTS OF MONROVIA (5 SHOTS) 1.12 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 16th August 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MONROVIA, LIBERIA
- Country: Liberia
- Reuters ID: LVADRGBWPLPSC61LB4DR552IKIPF
- Story Text: Hundreds of thousands of displaced people in
Liberia's capital Monrovia face a humanitarian disaster.
Stretcher-bearers in white rubber gloves
collected the body of person who died of cholera in Monrovia on
Wednesday (July 30), the latest victim of a humanitarian
tragedy engulfing the city besieged by rebels.
They zipped up the body in a body bag, put it on a
wheelbarrow, and then hurried to a makeshift cemetery where
they buried the body in a shallow grave.
Such grim processions have become a daily ritual in
Monrovia, where almost two weeks of mortar barrages have
killed hundreds.
Families bury their dead on Monrovia's rock-lined
beaches - digging holes in the sand with their bare hands.
Other victims arrive in ambulances, pickup trucks and
wheelbarrows at the main hospital, from which the
International Committee of the Red Cross takes them to
another temporary burial site on the eastern outskirts of
the city.
With no electricity to refrigerate bodies, aid workers
keep the dead for 24 hours in a small shed at their
makeshift clinic.
Any unclaimed bodies are buried in the nearby plot,
until they can be exhumed by relatives and transferred to a
cemetery.
Monrovia is a city rapidly sinking into chaos. Battles
around key bridges have raged for 12 days and hundreds of
thousands of civilians have been caught in the crossfire.
West African pledges to send in peacekeepers have been
hobbled by haggling over who should pay and concerns about
the fighting on the ground. About 1,500 Nigerian soldiers
are on standby to enter Monrovia's streets but regional
leaders want a truce first.
And civilians find themselves trapped in a living hell.
In Monrovia on Wednesday, heavy gunfire echoed around a
key bridge, and at least one person was killed by mortar
rounds despite the latest quickly-shattered rebel truce,
declared on Tuesday (July 29).
Rebels seized the strategic port and second city of
Buchanan on Monday (July 28), tightening the noose around
President Charles Taylor, a former warlord who is battling
with another rebel faction in the capital.
Taylor's government swiftly rejected the latest
ceasefire offer by Liberia's main rebel faction, Liberians
United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), who hold
Monrovia's port and are trying to break in to the centre.
Rebels hold two-thirds of Liberia and want Taylor,
indicted for war crimes by an international court, to leave
now.
He has accepted an offer of asylum from Nigeria but has
not said when he will definitely leave.
In the meantime, more and more displaced people are
pouring into Monrovia's centre, trying to stay one step
ahead of the bombs and bullets. The main football stadium
is packed with nearly 52,000 people and desperate people
seeking refuge in its stands are being turned away.
Hospital facilities are stretched to their limits,
treating victims of mortar bombs, people caught in
crossfire. Diseases such as cholera and malaria are
claiming daily victims. An increasing number of people are
showing signs of severe malnutrition. Young children,
nursing mothers and the elderly are particularly
vulnerable.
During a period of relative calm in the city centre on
Wednesday, people crept out of their hiding places and
dashed to the market, hunting desperately for scarce food.
Long queues formed outside a supermarket, and shoppers
tried to buy whatever was available in the market -- only
open for one hour a day. But many residents of Monrovia
simply can't afford the cost of goods, which have
skyrocketed in the past few weeks.
Many Liberians feel the United States has a duty to
intervene in a country founded by freed American slaves.
Three U.S. warships are heading to Liberia's waters but
Washington appears reluctant to deploy U.S. troops.
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