Aid arrives in desperate Liberia

Medical supplies make up much of the cargo

A flight carrying 30 tonnes of emergency aid from Britain has arrived in war-ravaged Liberia.

The £90,000 shipment of food, clothing and medical supplies, along with heavy plastic sheeting for shelter, touched down in the capital, Monrovia, on Monday morning.

At about the same time 300 Nigerian peacekeeping troops entered the country, on a mission to put an end to two months of civil war bloodshed.

Fighting between rebels and troops loyal to President Charles Taylor has left more than 200,000 people displaced, many of whom have fled the city.

Mr Taylor, who has been indicted by a United Nations court on war crimes charges, has agreed to step down on 11 August.

FORCE FOR LIBERIA 1,500 Nigerian troops to start arriving on Monday 2,000 West African troops to follow UN stabilisation force to be deployed by 1 Oct Peace troops deploy Liberia: What happens next?

Save the Children workers hope to spend Monday distributing the supplies to the most needy - including giving high-energy biscuits to about 900 children.

"The fighting has continued this morning in parts of the city but we are still intending to do distributions," said spokesman Brendan Paddy.

"On day one we are hoping to reach some 900 children who we have identified as being particularly vulnerable."

The charity privately chartered a Boeing DC-8, which left Manston Airport, Kent, at around 2215 BST on Sunday.

Civilians are caught up in the crossfire

The flight arrived safely at 0830 BST (0730 local time) and the entire cargo is being moved to Monrovia.

A second flight is planned for next weekend and Oxfam is hoping to fly water and sanitation equipment to Liberia next week.

Monday's aid package includes 8.5 tonnes of cholera and re-hydration kits, water purification tablets for 10,000 families, 150 bales of baby clothes and 60 rolls of heavy plastic sheeting.

Five tonnes of high-energy biscuits, 10,000 collapsible jerry cans and five World Health Organisation medical kits - which can treat 50,000 people between them - were also on the flight.

Looting risk

Mr Paddy said the best thing the peacekeepers could do to help Save the Children's aid effort would be to stop the fighting and protect local civilians.

"The main thing they can do is to ensure that the fighting stops so we can get on with our work more freely and to provide protection not to the agencies but to the civilians because at the moment the civilians are completely at the mercy of the armed groups."

He said the aid operation faced a serious threat from looters in the city which has been almost entirely cut off from clean water and food supplies.

Fighting has forced aid workers to retreat from most of the country

"There's a serious risk of looting. We could be faced with a situation where soldiers are trying to take high energy biscuits away from children."

The charity fears that children are at risk not only from fatal diseases, but also sexual abuse, exploitation and recruitment into armed groups.

At least 40,000 people are camping in the Samuel K Doe Sports Stadium because they have nowhere else to go.

The fighting became so intense last week that Save the Children had to pull out of most of the country, and its work is now restricted to Monrovia.

But a UN multinational force is being deployed by 1 October to try and keep control.