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Trouble has been brewing in Liberia for months. In the capital, Monrovia, President Charles Taylor is surrounded by opponents who now are working together and receiving external support from allies in Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire in a bid to oust him. With fighting between rebel forces and government troops now raging in the northwest, northeast and southeast, the government's ability to remain in power will be sorely tested in the coming weeks.
Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in 1847 and has been embroiled in ethnic fighting for much of the time since then. Rivalries between indigenous tribes have been aggravated and exploited by the presence of Americo-Liberians.
The current power struggle can be traced back to a 1980 military coup, when the late Samuel Doe, an ethnic Krahn, seized power. Twelve years later, the Americo-Liberian Charles Taylor, who returned to Liberia after reportedly escaping from a federal prison in the United States, led an armed insurrection against Doe.
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