Starving crowds gathered in Liberia's war-divided capital, stuffing leaves into their mouths to quell their hunger as aid agencies pressed for opening of humanitarian routes. Fighting surged in cities outside Monrovia.
Aid groups and US diplomats used a four-day break in fighting in the capital to cross front lines for the first time Friday.
The uneasy truce in the capital held no sway in Buchanan, Liberia's second-largest city, where residents reported fighting that prompted 8,000 civilians to take refuge in a Roman Catholic convent. In the north, rebels claimed to have retaken the town of Gbarnga, former stronghold of President Charles Taylor.
PHOTO: AP
Rebels are driving home a 3-year-old war to oust Taylor, a former warlord blamed for 14 years of near-constant war in Liberia.
Under US and West African pressure, Taylor has pledged to resign tomorrow and leave Liberia. He named Vice President Moses Blah to complete his term.
Although many ordinary people here express doubt that Taylor will ever willingly leave power -- or Liberia, diplomats spoke Friday of Taylor possibly departing as soon as tomorrow, escorted into exile in Nigeria by fellow West African heads of state.
Taylor's spokesman, Vaani Passawe, confirmed South African President Thabo Mbeki and Ghanaian President John Kufuor were among those expected to attend Taylor's resignation ceremony tomorrow. Liberian authorities refused comment on how soon after Taylor would leave.
A slowly building West African peace force and Taylor's pledge to step down has largely silenced mortars and rocket barrages in the capital, although chattering steel fusillades of AK-47 fire still burst the calm. Rebels raced around in pickup trucks on their side of the city, clutching assault rifles, rocket launchers and two prized anti-aircraft guns.
Despite the truce that has settled on Monrovia, authorities have been unable to breach the barriers between the capital's rebel-held port and the government-held central city. Rebel fighters and government troops hold opposite sides of bridges linking the two sides, blocking access to the port and its warehouses and shops stocked with food.
On the government side, women in the market offered only unripe peppers. Crowds showed what they were eating -- snails, leaves and flower bulbs -- considered inedible but nonetheless boiled for three hours until soft enough to gnaw.
"We're eating food that humans should not be eating," said 27-year-old Athanasius Carr, standing with dozens of others on a hill overlooking the New Bridge front line.
"People are dying!" cried a 15-year-old girl who gave her name only as Kema, staring down at the forbidden bridge.
Taylor's forces have blocked civilians from reaching the rebel side, where markets were piled high Friday with crisply fried chicken, bags of rice and piles of other grains.
"I didn't think it would be like this," said John Yealu, a 42-year-old civil engineer who reached rebel territory in Monrovia after swimming two front line rivers. Yealu said his three children were waiting for him at home.
Still wet from the trip and holding a change of clothes in a plastic bag, Yealu marveled at the bustling street lined with food stalls, saying: "People free all around. Food all around."
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