Liberians scurry for capital as gunfire shakes countryside

Thousands panicked civilians toting hastily gathered possessions streamed toward Liberia's capital yesterday, rushing from artillery explosions and gunfire that West African peacekeepers said came from the government's own militias.

Even as calm has spread in Monrovia, fighting and banditry has continued in the countryside despite a Monday peace deal between the government and rebels. Many in the exodus filling the road leading from Buchanan, a southern rebel-held port city, pleaded for peacekeepers to leave bases in the capital, Monrovia, and deploy throughout the interior.

Families with bundled sleeping mats and cooking pots on their heads, after taking flight Friday from the town of Compound One, in between Buchanan and Monrovia, and about 160km from the capital.

"Heavy artillery. Bang, bang, boom," said Joseph Boyeah, a teacher, among the fleeing crowds. "They started, so we packed our load and left," Boyeah said.

"We slept on the highway last night," said Nathan Marshall, on the road with 19 family members, who were fleeing fighting for the third time since June.

"Old people are dropping, children are getting lost," said Marshall, thin from three hungry months on the run.

"We thought the war was over -- we don't know why this is happening," he said.

Liberia's rebel movements and government signed a peace accord Monday, made possible by the Aug. 11 resignation and flight into exile of warlord-president Charles Taylor, who went to Nigeria.

A nearly three-week-old West African peace mission has quelled fighting in the capital. US Marines there made a trip through town in a convoy, waving to crowds in one of the higher-profile appearances of the fewer than 200 American troops on the ground.

Peacekeepers still struggling to build to a 3,250-strong force and are just beginning to make initial fact-finding forays beyond Monrovia.

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