Just hours after his disappearance was announced by the Nigerian government, Charles Taylor was caught nearly 1000 miles from his home at the northern Nigerian border Wednesday. He was attempting to leave the country in a jeep with diplomatic plates and a trunk full of U.S. dollars.

Journalists saw Taylor--in a white safari suit and surrounded by about 20 soldiers--board a Nigerian presidential plane at an airport in the northeast of the country. A security official at the airport said that Taylor was to be transported directly to Liberia's capital Monrovia, according to a Washignton Post report, although other reports say that Taylor was flown to Nigeria's capital Abuja, where he would be held until deported. Regardless, by early Wednesday, UN Peacekeepers had reportedly amassed at Monrovia's international airport.

For more background on Taylor and the situation in Liberia, see my posting from Monday.