A West African offensive that has rebel leader Charles Taylor on the run has forced tens of thousands of refugees into the bush and across Liberia's borders.
"I'm a refugee in my own country," Elizabeth Freeman said bitterly as she boiled a pot of rice over an open fire, the day's meal for herself and her two sons.Freeman said that her husband, Jerry, was killed three weeks ago by retreating rebels and that she walked for half a day until she reached Smell-No-Taste, where the United Nations has set up a refugee camp.
U.N. coordinator Ross Mountain said more than 80 percent of Liberia's people have been forced from their homes.
"They are a nation of displaced," he said Wednesday.
The Smell-No-Taste camp has 4,000 refugees. Mountain said it was important to keep people as near to their home villages as possible to avoid a flood of refugees into Monrovia, the already overcrowded capital.
Smell-No-Taste, 35 miles east of Monrovia, got its name during World War II when American troops camped nearby and Liberians could smell the aroma of their army fare but never got to taste any.