Liberia's only major referral hospital, the John F. Kennedy Medical Centre in the capital, Monrovia, can no longer contain the influx of cholera patients, most of whom are internally displaced persons, the acting Minister of Health Nathaniel Bartee said on Wednesday.

If U.S. troops are sent to Liberia, they should not make any deals that involve a withdrawal of the indictment of President Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Human Rights Watch says. The top priority for any peacekeeping troops must be the protection of civilians, who have suffered from abuses by all sides in the Liberian conflict, says Amnesty.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun to evacuate a first group of more than 300 Sierra Leonean refugees from strife-torn Liberia, and if the ceasefire there holds the agency says it will broaden the repatriation effort.

In a part of the world where one quickly becomes inured to the sight of scrawny, red-eyed, gun-toting teenage boys, there was an astonishing sight today along this capital's main road. In an empty field, in a heavy downpour in the middle of the rainy season in one of the world's wettest countries, was a small group of women, nearly all dressed in white, throwing their arms to the sky and dancing and singing, drenched from head to toe, calling to God to bring an end to war. These are Liberia's peaceniks - the Women in Peacebuilding Network - who for the last three months have been bent on praying on the side of the road, in sun and rain, every single day, to bring an end to war.

The UN Security Council's current president has said publicly for the first time that exile for Liberia's President Charles Taylor could be a means to end the civil war in his country. President Taylor faces an indictment for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone, where he backed rebels in the war that ended in 2001.

A decade after 18 U.S. Army Rangers were killed by an angry mob in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, the Bush administration is facing mounting pressure to put American 'boots on the ground' in Africa once again. Calls for an active U.S. intervention in Liberia are coming from the United Nations and various member governments, including Britain and France and leading African officials.

Aid workers struggled on Tuesday to help thousands of people left stranded, wounded or sick by fighting in Liberia's capital as the United States resisted any firm commitment to lead a peacekeeping force. Pressure has been mounting on the United States, already stretched by deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take a lead role in ending nearly 14 years of conflict in a West African nation founded by freed American slaves more than 150 years ago.

The chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President John Kufuor of Ghana, has urged the United Nations to consider setting aside the indictment of Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes in order to facilitate a negotiated settlement to Liberia's civil war. "I am not demeaning the role of the UN tribunal, although the indictment almost torpedoed the mediation process," Kufuor told a Security Council mission in the capital, Accra, on Monday.

Liberian rebels fighting to topple President Charles Taylor bombarded the capital city, Monrovia, with heavy mortar and rocket fire throughout the night and punched their way into the city centre on Wednesday morning.

Journalists are facing a reign of terror in Liberia following recent rebel incursions into the capital Monrovia, says the International Federation of Journalists. Following the retreat by rebel forces of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy group terror has descended on the city, with attacks involving government forces. The IFJ says more than 25 journalists have been displaced by the fighting.

On the eve of a visit by the United Nations Security Council delegation to West Africa, and as fighting intensifies around Liberia's capital, Monrovia, Amnesty International urged the countries of the sub-region and the international community to do everything possible to protect Liberian refugees and all others caught in the middle of these two conflicts.

Liberian President Charles Taylor rejected last Friday the proposed formation of a transitional government within 30 days that would exclude him. Taylor said he would only step down at the end of his term in January 2004, and even then, he might stand for re-election.

No-one is hailing the ceasefire agreed in Ghana on Tuesday between Liberian adversaries as the end of that country's civil war. But most people, especially Liberians, are hoping it will achieve a halt in the fighting - a first step along a long road to peace.

Following the recent incursions into the capital, Monrovia, and subsequent retreat of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels, residents of the Duala and New Kru Town suburbs have been subjected to a reign of terror. The attacks are allegedly being perpetrated primarily by government forces. Journalists and human rights activists in Monrovia have suffered the worst reprisals in what appears to be the targeted and systematic looting, arson and rape of residents caught up in the conflict.

Joy erupted in the battle-scarred streets of Monrovia Wednesday after a ceasefire between Liberia's besieged government and two rebel groups brought hope of an end to 14 years of war.
Related Links:
* Ceasefire signed in Ghana
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34806
* Fighting resumes in interior
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34782

The Liberian capital Monrovia remained quiet last Thursday for the second day running, but relief workers said nearly 50,000 people displaced by a rebel push into the city's western suburbs were living in extremely difficult conditions at a sports stadium and several schools.

The 4 June 2003 announcement of the indictment of Liberian President Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone propels the Liberian conflict into a new situation, with both opportunities and risks for the international community, says the International Crisis Group. Handled correctly, it can provide an opportunity to purge the region of one of the most serious threats to regional stability and usher in a new era of peace, stability, and democracy. Mishandled, the indictment can spark a new spiral of violence of catastrophic proportions not only for the Liberian people but also for the citizens of Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.

The UN refugee agency has evacuated its international staff from Monrovia amid weekend fighting near the Liberian capital and reports of violence and looting in the nearby refugee camps. UNHCR has expressed concern for 33 national staff who stayed behind, as well as some 15,000 Sierra Leonean refugees previously hosted in camps near Monrovia.

A day after calling on the United Nations to deploy a peacekeeping force in Liberia, President Charles Taylor on Wednesday agreed to cease hostilities against rebels who control the western suburbs of the capital, Monrovia, paving way for ceasefire discussions.

As virtually all international embassy, business, and non-governmental agency staff evacuate Monrovia, Liberians find themselves in an increasingly desperate situation in the capital, Monrovia, according to the independent medical aid organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Fighting continues for the fourth consecutive day, and there is no functioning water supply, hospitals have no electricity or other source of energy, and Monrovians are now fleeing their homes to find safety elsewhere.