LIBERIAN officials handed out bags of rice and sachets of drinking water to residents of the West Point slum in the capital Monrovia on Thursday.

Hundreds of residents lined up to receive government provisions in the impoverished township — but police used canes to beat back some locals while aid workers helped others to dip their fingers in ink to record their ration.

Troops had barricaded tens of thousands of people in the slum on Wednesday in a panicky effort to stop the spread of the Ebola virus.

They put up barbed wire barricades and enforced a blockade of the area with teargas and live fire, killing a 15-year-old boy.

Residents were cut off from their jobs and families were split up by the arbitrary segregation.

International aid workers warned that more help was needed as the country battles not only the virulent disease but also hunger.

The World Food Programme said it would also begin distributing food in the area in the coming days.

Prices were skyrocketing inside the community on an isolated peninsula, with the price of water quadrupling in slums where there is no clean running water amid steamy temperatures.

“At the moment West Point is stuck at a standstill and is in an anarchy situation,” said Moses Browne, who works locally for aid group Plan International.

“We need food, we need water,” he said, appealing for international support. “We’re not just fighting Ebola here, we are fighting hunger too.”