MONROVIA - As a fresh ceasefire took hold in the Liberian capital Monrovia on Friday, the mortuary at the city's main hospital overflowed with corpses from the latest four-day battle between government and rebel forces for control of the city. Hundreds of sick and wounded people milled helplessly round the corridors of the John F Kennedy hospital. Overworked doctors and nurses said they had virtually run out of supplies of medicine and blood to treat the human tide of suffering. Soldiers arrived constantly with more bodies from the frontline, but overwhelmed hospital staff told an IRIN correspondent who visited the scene that they could not accept any more cadavers unless somewhere could be found to bury the heaps of corpses that already clogged the mortuary. By Friday, supplies of food and drinking water at the stadium had run out completely. Several displaced people there told IRIN they had not eaten since Monday. Children cried with hunger as their helpless parents watched, unable to do anything. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the few health facilities in Monrovia that were still functioning had been stretched to their limits, prompting MSF to turn two of its compounds in the Mamba Point diplomatic quarter into emergency hospitals with out-patient and in-patient facilities. On Wednesday 150 wounded came to seek treatment. On Thursday a further 50 turned up.
| But remember, the important thing is getting a ceasefire, not ending the conflict. And Chuck still has a job... |
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