SAVE the Children UK is sending 30 tonnes of urgently needed food, medical and family survival supplies to Monrovia from Kent's Manston Airport on Sunday night.

The charity will distribute items from the flight including energy biscuits, plastic sheeting for emergency shelters, collapsible jerry cans, baby clothes and water purification tablets will begin within days of arrival, if the current fighting in Monrovia does not spread or escalate.

Cholera kits and oral rehydration concentrate will be used by Save the Children or sharedwith other agencies. More than 200,000 displaced people were crammed into central Monrovia before

the latest round of fighting. On top of the risk of death, injury, rape or looting of their few possessions during the fighting civilians also face malnutrition dirty drinking water and cholera.

Children in Liberia are exposed not only to death from easily preventable illnesses like diarrhoea, cholera and measles but also an increased risk of sexual abuse or exploitation and recruitment into armed groups.

Save the Children Liberia Emergency Advisor David Throp said: "The desperate need of children and families in Liberia is a direct result of the civil war. Save the Children is asking the UK government to ensure that the US Administration puts its troops on the ground in Liberia to support other regional and international troops.

"This is the only practical way to ensure the success of the peace enforcement resolution the US Administration itself has placed before the UN Security Council."

The Boeing DC-8 privately charted by Save the Children for the aid flight will be loaded Sunday afternoon at Manston and is expected to leave at about 8pm. The cargo is valued at £90,000.

Save the Children Liberia Emergency Advisor David Throp will be travelling on the flight to Monrovia where he will support the next phase of the emergency response.