Food reaches Liberian port city

Model rebels control Buchanan

The United Nations food agency has begun distributing urgently needed food supplies in the Liberian port city of Buchanan.

A truck convoy reached the city on Tuesday, but a World Food Programme official told the BBC that a curfew prevented the distribution from proceeding immediately.

The convoy was carrying enough to feed 16,000 people for a month.

Aid workers say that about 30,000 displaced Liberians have taken refuge in a church mission in Buchanan and they have warned that cholera deaths have been increasing in the port city.

Buchanan is controlled by the Model rebel movement, which has said the aid will not be blocked.

West African peacekeepers (Ecomil) have not been allowed into the city and have deployed on the outskirts, amid reports of looting and harassment of civilians by the rebels.

Malnutrition

More than 30,000 members of militia groups, armed forces and paramilitary personnel are still active in the countryside, where many Liberians are suffering from malnutrition and disease.

However, Ecomil peacekeepers say they are now in control of the third and last main road leading from Monrovia to the interior.

The European Commission has announced an aid package worth $12m for Liberia, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed that a force of 15, 000 UN peacekeepers be sent to Liberia..

A power-sharing government arranged under the peace deal is expected to take over on 14 October from the interim president Moses Blah.

Democratic elections are expected to be held in 2005.