A thousand villagers feared killed in Liberian massacre

Agence France-Presse | August 24, 2003

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MONROVIA, Aug 24 (AFP) - Many civilians were killed and villages torched in a massacre in Nimba county north-east of Monrovia, a senior Liberian military official told AFP late Sunday.

"I have received a report from our security officers that many villages there had burned down and that there have been lots of massacres," said General Benjamin Yeaten, deputy head of the government army.

"My understanding is that there was a massacre but we are not exactly sure how many people have been killed, it could be a hundred, it could be a thousand," he added, without saying who the perpetrators were.

He did say that the two main rebel groups in the country, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), had carried out attacks in Nimba in recent days.

Citing a witness who had fled the assault at Bahn, in Nimba, 250 kilometres (150 miles) north-east of the capital Monrovia, local public radio reported that MODEL rebels had stormed the town, opening fire on the local population before disappearing back into the surrounding forest.

The attack left a thousand people dead, the witness said.

"Our information is sketchy. We know there are fightings in the area, both LURD and MODEL. LURD is fighting in Bong county and MODEL fighting in Nnimba, so it's difficult to know who is who," said information minister Reginald Goodridge.

There has been sporadic fighting since the government, MODEL and LURD signed an accord on August 18 to put an end to 14 years of nearly uninterrupted civil war in Liberia.

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"There has been sporadic fighting since the government, MODEL and LURD signed an accord on August 18 to put an end to 14 years of nearly uninterrupted civil war in Liberia. "

14 years? is this the hatfields n the mccoys?

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A thousand villagers feared killed in Liberian massacre

There have been ten of thousands of Christians who have been massacred from Indonesia to Nigeria to Sudan in the last 5 years. I don't recall that getting even 1/1000th the attention that this is.

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Gee, savagery in Africa. What a surprise.

"All cultures are equal" bump.

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Lurd and "Model" terrorist groups in Liberia are Islamic, attacking villages of Christians and traditionalists.