Liberia: Access agreement signed

(New York: 18 August 2003) - The signing of an agreement on humanitarian access is a hopeful sign that it will be possible to meet the needs of Liberia's long-suffering population-many of whom have been cut off from aid for months or even years.
Yesterday in Accra, Ghana the Government of Liberia, two rebel factions, the UN, the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union, signed an agreement that would allow "free and unimpeded access to. . ..enable the delivery of humanitarian aid and assistance by international organizations and non-governmental organizations." The agreement also guarantees the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and their staff. While UN agencies are waiting to see if the agreement will hold, they are conducting assessments that would allow them to re-establish operations in areas that had been cut off from aid by fighting. Tomorrow, an assessment team will go to the town of Tubmanburg to evaluate which humanitarian needs are most urgent see if security conditions are conducive for resuming humanitarian activities. Later in the week, a similar assessment will be undertaken in the Liberian port town of Buchanan.

There were also minor improvements in the humanitarian situation in Monrovia over the weekend. As security in the capital improved, many of Monrovia's 450,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have begun returning to their homes. Engineers from the European Union were able to repair a pump damaged in fighting last month, and hope to be able to the water supply to Monrovia's Bushrod Island restored by Wednesday. Some stores around Monrovia began to re-open, and were expecting shipments of commercial goods including rice by the end of the week.

The UN World Food Programme has been distributing the 4,300 metric tonnes of food that were not looted last week. The UN's food agency will prioritize urgent distributions to some 200,000 children under 5 as well as patients in Monrovia's hospitals. In the health sector, the World Health Organization (WHO) has begun distribution of the 5 tonnes of medical supplies that landed in Monrovia last week. WHO provide basic medical kits to a makeshift Monrovia medical clinic over the weekend, while their counterparts from humanitarian non-governmental organizations concentrated on interventions to treat cholera.

To ensure maximum effectiveness of humanitarian efforts in Liberia, the UN is bolstering its coordination efforts. Mr. Ross Mountain, the UN Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Liberia arrived over the weekend and chaired 2 coordination meetings between UN and NGO aid agencies. A Humanitarian Operations Centre (HOC) has also been established to facilitate cooperation between military and humanitarian actors.