"We wanna go home, Ghana! "

In downtown Monrovia, Liberia, thousands of stranded Ghanaians are crying out for help.

They have been huddled around Ghana's embassy for more than a week, praying to be taken home after being uprooted by the latest bout of fighting.

"We've been here for seven days. We've been abandoned here. No one is caring for us," said teacher Tobias Mensah. "We want President John Kufuor to send some ships. We want to go. We don't want to stay here. We are tired."

Children scurry hither and thither, old women squat on bags, mats are laid out under trucks for people to shelter from the rain, and a group of young men chant: "We wanna go home, Ghana! We wanna go home, Ghana!"

Many of the young Ghanaians have lived in Liberia for most of their lives, but the violence during the past few years has taken its toll. They said Ghanaian authorities had already sent one ship, but they did not have enough to pay for tickets.

"I want to let President John Kufuor know that we are suffering. We don't have any money. They must send a plane or a ship to get us out," said Moses Otangsarpong.