Liberia: UN agencies expand assistance

(New York: 19 August 2003) - The situation in Monrovia continues to improve, though great needs created by months of conflict remain. UN humanitarian agencies are steadily increasing the numbers of their staff and quantities of relief supplies in Liberia, and are assessing whether areas outside Monrovia are now safe enough to conduct humanitarian work.
In Monrovia, the World Food Programme is continuing to distribute the 4,300 metric tonnes of food that remained in its warehouses after looting last week. WFP is targeting its distributions to roughly 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) staying at some 110 spontaneous settlements around Monrovia. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repatriated more than 200 refugees to Sierra Leone over the past few days. UNHCR received a shipment of enough blankets, shelter materials and kitchen sets for 7,000 people. The refugee agency has also received a shipment of 4,000 litres of fuel, which has been in critically short supply. Humanitarian agencies are hopeful that electricity and water supplies may be restored to parts of the capital by the end of the week.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) delivered shelter materials, high-energy biscuits and recreational items to a shelter for 450 orphans in Monrovia today. UNICEF is also working with an NGO implementing partner, Merlin, to have basic medicines distributed within Monrovia and at least two sites outside Monrovia. UNICEF has also provided the Liberian National Health Service with some 500 gallons of fuel with which to power generators crucial for the preservation of vaccines.

An inter-agency assessment team, whose members include representatives of UNICEF, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UN Office of the Security Coordinator (UNSECOORD), went to the Po-Waterside area to determine whether it would be possible to open a humanitarian corridor into Liberia from Sierra Leone. Similar assessments are planned for the towns of Gbarnga and Tubmanburg later this week as UN humanitarian agencies try to expand their operations into to areas that have been too unsafe for aid deliveries.

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NEW YORK: Brian Grogan 212 963-1143
GENEVA: Elizabeth Byrs 41 22 917 2652