Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has disappeared from his residence in southeastern Nigeria, the presidency said today.
Taylor, wanted for war crimes by a court in Sierra Leone, vanished last night, two days after Nigeria said Liberia was free to take him into its custody.
Nigeria and Liberia were at odds about where he should go, and confusion has reigned about his location since the Nigerian announcement.
Taylor had lived in Nigeria since 2003, when he stepped down as president as part of a deal to end Liberia's 14-year civil war that spilled over into nearby countries.
Taylor's spokesman in Nigeria had said this afternoon that Taylor was in his Calabar villa. Lobby group Human Rights Watch, which had urged Nigeria to increase security around Taylor to prevent his escape, blamed Nigeria for his disappearance.
"This is a serious indictment of Nigeria's commitment to peace and security in Liberia, to seeing justice done for victims of the violence in Sierra Leone and to the fight against impunity throughout Africa," Corinne Dufka, head of the group's West Africa office, said.
Taylor stands accused of supporting Sierra Leone rebels exchange for diamonds to finance the Liberian conflict. The two conflicts claimed an estimated 300,000 lives, spawned a generation of child soldiers and destroyed the infrastructure of both countries.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf asked Nigeria earlier this month to hand over Taylor to stand trial in Sierra Leone. But Nigeria replied that Liberia was free to take him into its custody. It gave no details of when and how the transfer was supposed to take place. The prosecutor of the Sierra Leone court had called for Taylor's arrest.