Ghana To Send Warship & Planes To Liberia

....... As Foreigners flee fighting
Ghana has sent a navy ship and three air force planes to evacuate nationals from war-wracked Liberia where rebels and government forces are engaged in a bitter battle, the president's office said late on Monday.

"President John Kufuor has requested immediate measures to possibly evacuate Ghanaian nationals caught up in the fighting in Liberia," presidential spokesman Kwabena Agyepong said in a statement.

"In response to the president's directive, the Ghana armed forces have despatched one navy ship, two Fokker 27 and one Fokker 28 air force planes to the area," it said.

The announcement came after French troops evacuated more than 512 trapped expatriates from the Liberian seaside capital Monrovia during a day-long operation Monday.

The foreigners are scheduled to arrive in Ivory Coast aboard a French military vessel on Tuesday.

The Ghanaian statement said Accra had also "appealed to countries that are already evacuating their nationals from Liberia to extend assistance to Ghanaian nationals who are eager to return home."

At least 400 000 Ghanaians live in Liberia, which has been torn apart by a civil war which lasted for seven years until 1997 only to erupt again two years later.

Ghana, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional grouping, is hosting peace talks on Liberia, which have failed to take off due to continued fighting in Monrovia.