Rebels have reportedly captured Liberia’s main timber port, Harper, in an apparent bid to cut off one of president Charles Taylor’s main sources of revenue.
The news comes just a week after the UN Security Council extended its sanctions against the government to include a ban on wood exports, effective from July 7, because it believed Taylor was buying arms from timber earnings. Until now, exports by Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian logging companies have provided major funding for the government.
Movement for Democracy in Liberia rebels also took the country’s other main timber port, Greenville, earlier in May.
