Exiled President Charles Taylor settles in Nigeria as Liberia begins transition

Jet, Sept 1, 2003

Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor and the war-torn country he left behind are now learning to live without each other.

Taylor ceded power to his deputy, Moses Blah, and accepted asylum offered by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, effectively ending 14 years of conflict begun when Taylor, a Liberian-born, Boston-educated business student who trained in guerrilla fighting in Libya, launched Liberia into civil war in 1989 (JET, August 25).

Taylor stated: "President Obasanjo has proven that an Africa wanting to be strong can be strong."

Taylor's exit marked the beginning of the country's turning point. Ghana's President John Kufuor said it was "the end of an era in Liberia" and "It is our expectation that today the war in Liberia has ended." Liberia's leading rebel movement agreed to lift two months of sieges of the capital, withdrawing from the city and its vital port while allowing the United Nations World Food Program's 10,000 tons of aid and food to flow again to hundreds of thousands of cut-off and starving people.

Less than a day later at least 200 American troops had landed to support a West African peace force. U.S. helicopters and attack jets swept back and forth over the capital as rebels withdrew, drawing cheers from tens of thousands of people who filled the streets and waved the flags of peace-force leaders Nigeria and the United States.

Washington has stressed that the U.S. role would focus mostly on humanitarian assistance.

The United States previously had about a dozen soldiers on the ground in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century.

"We are just here to help the people," said U.S. Sgt. Michael Hobbs.