CNN - Civilians prepare to flee Liberia as fighting continues

Civilians prepare to flee Liberia as fighting continues

April 8, 1996
Web posted at: 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 GMT)

MONROVIA, Liberia (CNN) -- Some 15,000 civilians took shelter in the U.S. Embassy annex Monday as fighting continued for the third day in the capital.

The United States began planning the evacuation of 470 U.S. nationals and nationals of other countries as rebel fighters seized hostages in renewed ethnic fighting.

Pentagon sources confirmed that two U.S. Air Force C-5 transport planes had been moved to Sierra Leone for possible evacuation. The United States is also talking to other countries about evacuating their citizens, including some 10,000 who have sought refuge at the 27-acre U.S. Embassy residential annex.

Fighting erupted Saturday when armed police attempted to arrest warlord Roosevelt Johnson on murder charges. Liberia's ruling transitional coalition ousted Johnson as rural development minister in February. The fighting among coalition forces and seven warring rebel factions is said to be the worst in three years.

"We hear rocket-propelled grenade fire, mortar fire, heavy arms fire," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Dudley Sims. "It's pretty bad."

Paul Koulen, deputy representative of the U.N. Development Program in Monrovia, said from his office in the embassy district that he could see people fleeing in all directions.

"We've seen these people with all their belongings on their heads -- beds, sheets, everything -- running up and down Mamba Point, depending on where the gunfire has been coming from. It has been a pathetic sight."

U.N. spokesperson Ahmed Fawzi said U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali "is closely monitoring the situation and ... appeals to the factions to desist from any future escalation of the situation and to work with Ecomog (the peacekeeping force) in order to restore order in the city."

In Washington, a Liberian task force was working around the clock at the State Department to monitor the situation. Should an evacuation be ordered, Pentagon sources said, U.S. citizens would be flown by helicopter from U.S. compounds in the coastal city of Monrovia to ships off-shore or directly to the airport at Sierra Leone.

Although security was tightened around the U.S. Embassy, Sims said Liberian rebels did not appear to be threatening Americans.

U.S. Marines evacuated some 2,300 people from Liberia in 1990 after the start of the country's six-year civil war.

CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related Sites

Liberia Page
C.I.A. World Fact Book 1995 on Liberia

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Civilians prepare to flee Liberia as fighting continues

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