Tens of thousands of famished Liberians swept across a Monrovia bridge in search of food and family yesterday as rebel fighters released their month-long grip so the city could be reunited.
With wheelbarrows, pots and plastic bags, the hungry crowds surged towards the port area, where West African peacekeepers were deployed with the help of US Marines on Thursday as the rebels pulled back beyond the outskirts.
Most of Monrovia's aid stocks were in the port when rebels Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) grabbed it last month in the most ferocious of a series of attacks since June that have left some 2,000 people dead.
Food looted from the port is now on sale cheap on what was the rebel side of the front line.
Setting off with five gallons of sugarcane juice, Rufus Gaye said he hoped to trade it for three bags of rice.
"My children have been hungry for two weeks," said the father of seven, among hundreds of thousands of people driven into refuge by the fighting.
With their mission to overthrow pariah leader Charles Taylor accomplished after he flew into exile on Monday, the rebels agreed to pull back to give a chance to talks on ending strife that has racked Liberia for 14 years and poisoned the region.
Residents said a few rebels still hung back inside Monrovia yesterday, although they are meant to be at a river beyond the outskirts.
Rebel leaders met President Moses Blah in Ghana on Thursday, but there were few signs of the quick breakthrough regional leaders had been hoping would lead to a full peace deal by the weekend.
A rebel delegate said they were still unhappy with a regional proposal that warring factions could hold none of the four top jobs in a transition government to lead Liberia for two years once Blah steps down in mid-October.
"I can't see how we can be expected to disarm our boys without the authority that empowers us to do so," Kabina Ja'neh said. "I don't see this finishing tomorrow unless Mohammed or Jesus Christ intervenes."
Founded by freed slaves from America in the 19th century, Liberia has become a byword for instability and destruction, its war dragging down neighboring Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast.
The US, which has traditionally had close links with Monrovia, has warships waiting offshore and on Thursday deployed over 100 Marines at the city's airport ready to back up the Nigerian peacekeepers in case of trouble.
Other Marines joined the West Africans as they moved into the port.
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