Liberians 'Liberate' Food Supplies

Thousands of civilians and rebel soldiers stormed the port of Monrovia yesterday in a frenzy of looting that stripped tonnes of food from warehouses and shipping containers.

Entire districts of the Liberian capital were clogged with people who carried, dragged, pushed and wheeled what they could, as rebels fired in the air and waved knives in a vain effort to stop the chaos.

Believing it was their last chance before Nigerian-led peacekeepers were due to move in today, the looters turned the free port into precisely that.

"Gotta grab it while you can," said Tita Weah, 19, eight months' pregnant and knee-high in yellow maize meal which spilled from white sacks emblazoned with EU logos. Her mother, Frances Toba, 39, was lightening a 50kg (110lb) sack of half its load so she could carry it the two miles back home.

Behind them a single file of adults and children were tramping out of the port with bags of US corn meal on their heads.

The air reeked of fermented grain, like a brewery. Since seizing the port several weeks ago the rebels have plundered and distributed stocks from the UN World Food Programme, but a promise to hand control to peacekeepers today precipitated yesterday's free-for-all. Some people on the government-held side of Monrovia, which is close to starvation, walked through neck-high swamps to join the looting, according to witnesses.

One UN official consoled himself that at least some of the food appeared to be finding its way to deserving people. Much found its way to the rebels. They were the ones in the lorries and four-wheel drives rolling out of warehouses.

Some were jubilant, letting off AK-47s to celebrate the departure of President Charles Taylor and directing people to the food.

But later in the day commanders arrived and threatened to shoot looters — the civilian ones. Elsewhere the rebels prepared for their withdrawal by strapping tables, chairs and mattresses to vehicles that raced up and down the road known as UN Drive.

Offshore a UN food ship waited. Carolyn McAskie, a deputy emergency relief coordinator, said that once the rebels pulled back aid workers onboard could begin moving food in. She hoped several tonnes of corn meal remained in storage containers at the port and said the UN was planning to fly in cooking oil and lentils. "The situation on the ground is very desperate," she said.

The new president, Moses Blah, said US fighter planes would soon start patrols in a show of force. One US warship moved closer to shore, boosting hopes that US marines will join the Nigerians.

Meanwhile, fighting continued between a second rebel group and government forces in the second city of Buchanan.