Liberia: 50,000 IDPs in need of emergency assistance

Monrovia: 8 September 2003 - At least 50,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the regional town of Salala, appealed over the weekend for improved security and rapid humanitarian assistance in northeastern Liberia.
The mass-movement to Salala, witnessed by humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations Special Humanitarian Coordinator, Ross Mountain, on 3 September (as many as 50,000 IDPs) on the Totota-Salala-Kakata road - 120km north east of the Capital, Monrovia, underscores the importance of the deployment of the UN peacekeeping operation for Liberia.

"Ensuring the safety of civilians receiving assistance is particularly challenging. In some cases, where a permanent security presence is absent, IDPs have discouraged the distribution of food, out of fear of being attacked and looted by combatants, despite their acute food needs", said Mr Mountain.

"The deployment of ECOMIL (soon to be UN peacekeeping forces) up-country will be a major factor in providing a secure environment and boosting the ability and confidence of humanitarian agencies to deliver vital assistance that does not place vulnerable populations, and humanitarian workers, in jeopardy", added Mr Mountain.

An inter-agency assessment mission, comprising the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)'visited Salala, and nearby Falala, on Saturday, 6 September. Members of the mission team, in consultation with NGO partners, were able to reaffirm that after the vital need for security, the urgent humanitarian needs of the IDPs included the provision of basic shelter, access to potable water and food aid.

Since September 4th, two humanitarian convoys, comprising boxes of food (BP5 high-energy biscuits), plastic sheets and other non-food items, have been distributed to IDPs by the UN, their implementing NGO partners, and the ICRC. Merlin and Oxfam are providing water and sanitation, Save the Children are distributing food and providing protection assistance. Lutheran World Services has assumed responsibility for overall site management, including distribution of food and NFI while MSF has reinforced its medical units to meet critical health needs.

"IDP sites have become new battlefields where the fighting forces compete for the meager resources provided by relief agencies. Despite this, we are making inroads", said Mr Mountain.

Now humanitarian operations have resumed in Monrovia and outside the three axes, namely in Tubmanburg in Bomi County (under LURD control), along Kakata-Salala-Totota corridor in Margibi and Bong counties (under Government control) and towards Buchanan in Grand Bassa County (under MODEL control). In these areas, humanitarian organisations have begun to deliver much-needed assistance. Cross border missions are also scheduled from Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone.

For further information, please call Nicholas McGowan +377 47 530 433 (OCHA Liberia); Stephanie Bunker +212 963 1143 (OCHA NY), Elizabeth Byrs +41 22 917 2653 (OCHA Geneva).