Over 5,000 Sierra Leone refugees in northwestern Liberia have fled the fighting in the region.
August 27; The fighting in the northwest, 260 kilometers from the capital Monrovia, has created some 25,000 refugees.
August 25; Fighting continues in the northwest, with the army advancing cautiously to minimize civilian casualties. The rebels dress are generally not in uniform and will mix with civilians when it suits them. The rebels are from two factions (ULIMO-K, led by Alhaji Kromah and ULIMO-J, led by Roosevelt Johnson) of the United Liberation Movement (ULIMO). Kromah is currently in the United States, and Johnson is in Nigeria. ULIMO was disbanded when the civil war ended in 1997, but these two factions, once rivals, joined forces to keep a rebellion going.
August 20; Liberian refugees say that Sierra Leone rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are involved in the fighting throughout northwestern Liberia. The RUF troops are operating with fighters from the Joint Forces for the Liberation of Liberia (JFLL), which is believed to include men formerly with the ULIMO militia (one of groups active in the early 1990s Liberian civil war) and renegades from the Mandingo tribe. There are some 50,000 Sierra Leone refugees in Liberian camps in the area of the current fighting. The unrest has cut off most food and other supplies to these refugees. Already, 800 tons of food aid and 13 trucks headed into the area have been stolen.
August 19; Rebels have been accused of killing and robbing refugees fleeing the unrest in northwest Liberia.
August 17; The government accused Guinea of firing artillery into Liberia to support rebels. The army is still chasing down the rebels, who in turn have been burning down villages and crops. Guinea in turn charges that Liberia and Burkino Faso are harboring rebel forces poised to invade Guinea. Some 11,000 refugees have fled the fighting..
