MONROVIA, 5 August 2003 — West Africa’s first troops landed yesterday on an international rescue mission for Liberia, welcomed by overjoyed civilians who poured onto airport tarmac by the hundreds, hoisting a commander on their shoulders and chanting “We want peace!”
The task of the deployment, promised to build to 3,250-strong and be followed by a UN force: Ending 14 years of carnage in this once prosperous nation and overseeing departure of warlord-turned-President Charles Taylor. Deploying in white UN helicopters in driving rain, the first Nigerian troops leapt out in camouflage and flak vests, machine guns at the ready. Crouching, soldiers took up defensive positions around Liberia’s main airport, well outside the embattled capital.
Excited crowds waited at the edges, waving hand-lettered signs proclaiming “Peace at last.” As an armored personnel carrier with mounted machine gun rolled off one flight, a throng of 200-300 people evaded security and poured onto the tarmac.
Lifting a commander, Col. Emeka Onwuama Egbu, to their shoulders, they chanted, “No more war! We want peace.”
In Monrovia, the war-ruined capital, Liberians milled on the main road from the airport, eager for any sign of the troops.
“I want to see them with my own eyes,” said Bangalu Wonwondor, a former farmer living as a refugee since 1999. “And when I do, even though I have no food, my belly will be big, and I will be happy.”
Even as peace troops landed, small-arms fire echoed in the neighborhoods of tin-roof shacks near Old Bridge, focus of a nearly two months of attack as rebels try to push from Monrovia’s port into downtown, heart of Taylor’s government. Black smoke rose from the rebel-held side of the bridge — warehouses, residents said, set afire by mortars Saturday, and still burning. Yesterday’s deployment made up the first wave of a promised West African deployment, to be followed within months by a UN peacekeeping force, newly authorized by the UN Security Council.
Allan Doss, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s representative in neighboring Sierra Leone, saw off the first troops from there earlier yesterday.
West African leaders have been promising the force since early June, as rebels were opening sieges on the capital that have now killed well over 1,000 people.
Fighting has cut off the port and the main water plant, leaving the city of more than 1.3 million residents and refugees wracked by disease and running out of food and water.
Defense Minister Daniel Chea greeted the troops on behalf of Taylor’s government. “We will do everything as a government to support them in their endeavor,” Chea told reporters.
In Rome, the leader of the insurgent group behind the siege likewise promised cooperation with the foreign troops, and renewed pledges to turn over the port, with its food warehouses, once enough peace troops are on the ground.
“We are going to work with them,” said the rebel leader. “They should be able to provide security for civilians, then we can withdraw.”
Ambassador John Blaney of the United States was among those on hand at the airport to welcome the peacekeepers.
Nigeria Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji, arriving separately from the peace troops, also flew into Monrovia yesterday — bearing what aides said was a message for Taylor. Adeniji refused to say what it was.
