U.S. Removal Of Warlord May End Month Of Bloodshed In Monrovia Roosevelt Johnson Secretly Flown To Neighboring Sierra Leone

A warlord whose standoff with militia leaders plunged Monrovia into a month of chaos was secretly carried out of the country Friday aboard a U.S. helicopter, a move that could finally end the bloodshed.

African peacekeeping troops, in broad daylight, sneaked Roosevelt Johnson out of a besieged army barracks in a convoy of tanks and armored vehicles and spirited him to the American Embassy, said an embassy official.

He boarded a U.S. military helicopter and was flown to neighboring Freetown, Sierra Leone, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

From Freetown, he planned to travel to Accra, Ghana, for a summit next week on Liberia’s six-year-old civil war. U.S. officials in Washington said they expected Johnson to take part in the meeting.

Charles Taylor, the warlord-turned-government leader whose feud with Johnson sparked nearly a month of intermittent violence in Monrovia, told CNN by telephone: “We see his departure as a surrender. It’s a welcome development.”

It was unclear whether Johnson considered it a surrender or whether he planned to return to Monrovia after the Ghana talks and resume his power-struggle.

Officials said the flight was the outcome of two days of behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts involving U.N., U.S., and peacekeeping authorities.

Efforts to revive the truce increased in urgency after Taylor on Thursday vowed an all-out assault on Johnson.

The threat sent thousands of civilians rushing to the port Friday to try to escape by boat.

Johnson, a former Cabinet minister, was sacked by the government and charged with murder in connection with clashes in March that violated a 1995 nationwide peace accord.

Johnson’s refusal to surrender sparked fighting that quickly spread into a citywide spree of looting, shelling and gunfire.

The United States military began evacuating foreigners April 10, and by Friday about 2,100 people had been flown to neighboring countries from the American Embassy.

Overnight, 60 more Marines were flown into the compound from U.S. warships off the coast, bringing to 290 the number of troops protecting the Embassy and its 18 remaining personnel. Security concerns have increased since Tuesday, when three Liberians who fired their weapons toward the Embassy were killed by Marines.

There was scattered shooting Friday, but the city remained relatively quiet for a second straight day.