LIBERIA: Fresh fighting has broken out between government forces and a rebel group in northern Liberia, leading to the burning of towns and homes, officials said yesterday, dealing another blow to a fledgling peace process to end 14 years of war in the west African nation.
"This fighting has led to the burning of towns and homes in areas like Gray, Zuatuo and other towns," said a military official who declined to be named. "This is very serious and we have informed the United Nations about this incident."
The official said the fighting in Nimba county involved government forces and rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), the smaller of two rebel factions that still control vast swathes of Liberian territory.
After former warlord Charles Taylor stepped down as Liberia's president in August, the warring factions agreed to lay down their arms and form a power-sharing government meant to shepherd the country to elections in two years.
The reported clashes highlight the challenges of bringing peace to the country's lawless interior, where armed fighters with a record of murder, rape and pillage roam far from UN peacekeepers deployed in the coastal capital, Monrovia.
"We have received information about fighting in that area and we are concerned about this.
On Sunday, a team went to Nimba in a helicopter to find out what the situation was like," an unnamed UN official said.
"We saw some areas on fire, but we will go there later today." No deaths have been reported so far.
At its full strength of 15,000 troops, the UN force in Liberia will be the world body's biggest mission since one that ended a savage conflict in nearby Sierra Leone.
Disarming thousands of armed fighters, including many child soldiers, will be one of its toughest tasks. All sides have accused each other of violating the August peace deal.
The administrator of Nimba county, a traditional stronghold of support for Taylor, said he was worried about the fighting.
"We have peacekeepers now and we thought that this war would be over, but that is not the case," Mr Harrison Karnewa said in Monrovia after receiving reports from soldiers in Nimba.
MODEL rebels emerged in Liberia this year, crossing over from Ivory Coast, itself struggling to emerge from a bloody civil war.
The group controls much of eastern Liberia.