Civilians fleeing by the thousands appealed for rescue, as a trip into the countryside showed Liberia's nightmare far from over -- with families clutching bone-thin babies and speaking of near-nightly gunfire.
Exhausted refugees streamed south, or crowded by the thousands into dirt yards, schools and churches in and around the last government-held town, Zensu, on a road linking the rebel-held north to the capital, Monrovia, 95km away.
With a still-building West African peace force yet to venture into the interior, families ran out, screaming for help, at the sight of some of the few civilian vehicles from the south.
"We're suffering. Our children are dying," Fatu Leonfay, 42, shouted Wednesday. "We're dropping them on the road."
Emaciated women around her cradled naked children, their bellies bloated by malnutrition.
Leonfay and others pleaded for peacekeepers.
"If they don't come, we'll die," she cried.
At nearby Maimu refugee camp, fighting has trapped 60,000 people without food aid since April. Aid workers came up briefly this week, empty-handed, to tell camp residents living off straggling corn plants and wild greens there would be no food deliveries until security returned.
A nearly month-old West African peace mission has calmed Monrovia, where rebels lifted 10 weeks of siege after forcing out warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor on Aug. 11.
But despite a week-old peace deal, reports of rebel fighting persist in the northeast, southeast and center of the country.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
RSS