Liberation for Liberia? Liberia has suffered through 14 years of civil war. Now that troublemaker ex-President Charles Taylor is finally gone, could the nation at long last begin to heal its wounds?

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: International

Liberians have always thought of the United States as a protective older brother, so the sight of American warships off the coast of Monrovia, the country's capital, inspired hope. Eager to catch a glimpse of the mighty ships, droves of people rushed down to the city's beaches, where just a few days before they had buried their dead and foraged for snails to fend off starvation.

This was Liberia in the uneasy clays that followed President Charles Taylor's August 11 resignation and departure for exile: a mixture of great hope and great anxiety about the future after 14 years of civil war. According to a peace agreement signed by the government and the rebels, an interim government is scheduled to take over Liberia next month, paving the way for free elections and hopes of finally putting to rest the nation's troubles.

"We are, all of us, paralyzed by war," says Isaiah Doe, 24. "It will take years to erase the memory."

But Taylor's departure, while clearly an important step toward resolution, does not solve the many problems Liberia still faces in trying to restore some sense of normalcy. Will humanitarian groups be able to get food and medical supplies to the desperate citizens of Monrovia in time to avoid a large-scale disaster? Will the international peacekeepers be able to control the capital? Will the various sides pick up their weapons again? To what extent should the U.S. get involved? And ultimately, will the United Nations be able to disarm all the rebel factions and find a way to reintegrate them back into Liberian civil society?

"Liberia is a completely trashed country," says Tim Docking, an Africa specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace. "The infrastructure has been tom out, and 6 percent of the population has been killed. And it's in a region that's destabilized."

NO FOOD, NO MEDICINE

Since the fight over the capital began in June, life in Monrovia has been miserable. With rebels controlling the port through which all food and goods enter the country, Liberians who lived in the part of the city under government control began to starve. With the lack of food and clean water, diseases like malaria and cholera started to spread. Meanwhile, the rebel-held side of the city had ample food but no medicines at all, and civilians wounded in the crossfire died of gangrene because there was no way to treat their wounds.

This summer's crisis was just the latest round of violence in the long civil war. At least 200,000 Liberians, mostly civilians, have died in the conflict since 1989. An estimated 1 million Liberians have been displaced. And approximately 30 percent of Monrovia's residents suffer from malnutrition.

There are no ideological differences fueling the destruction. The civil war has been primarily a power struggle between armed factions that connect to the Liberian government and rebel factions with ties to neighboring countries. With a trove of natural resources to fight over, this cycle of revenge has spread conflict across West Africa for more than a decade.

ONCE & LEADER IN AFRICA

How did the situation in Liberia...