Players appeal for calm in Monrovia


By Bruce Wiah – Liberiansoccer.com
July 25, 2003

A score of Lone Star players are appealing for the immediate cessation of the war in Monrovia.

The players said that the killing and maiming of their relatives and friends are highly reviling and must end.

They’re however calling for foreign intervention to help the thousands of children being let to die freely for no reasons.

Dead bodies in the streets of West Point – a football village are left unburied, reports Reuters news agency.

West Point, a home of most Liberian talents is closer to the war front.

“I have cancelled my vacation to Monrovia because of fear of my live”, one player said.

“The safety of my fiancé and five month-old baby girl worries me and there is no way I can send them money”, an Indonesian-based player lamented.

Ben Teekloh who recently captained the Lone Star in Niamey, Niger was trapped in Monrovia during the rebels’ first assaults on Monrovia.

He said the situation is dreadful, and playing against Ethiopia was a deceit of bravery as stray bullets and rocket particles flew freely.

The former Tonnerre KC midfielder reasoned that the war has caused Liberia’s miss-out to Tunisia 2004.

Several players that have begun the first premium league are risking their lives on fishing canoes, while others are trapped and fear dead in Monrovia.

Lurd rebels and government troops are battling violently for the control of Monrovia for the third time in less than a month.

More than 700 lives are lost already and hundreds other are left injured as the fighting enters its seventh day today.

Humanitarian Alarm


Aid Agencies are reporting the shortage of water and food for nearly 1 million people crammed in the tense city center.

The outburst of cholera and other endemic are predicted as supply routes are cut by the bloody war.

Children and even the elderly too are scrambling for palm kernels, wide roots and green leaves on the suburbs of Monrovia.