OCHA West Africa Newsletter No. 1

Liberia: Crisis continues
Current humanitarian situation in Liberia

The humanitarian community continues to render emergency assistance to vulnerable groups, including IDPs, children and members of host communities. Amidst reports of movements of dissident groups in Gbarpolu County, vulnerable Liberians continue to flee their homes for the relative safety of IDP camps. The new IDPs are arriving in a worse state of health, the majority suffering from malnutrition. There are many women-headed and even child-headed households in the camps, who are more vulnerable to sexual violence and are at increased risk from contracting sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The continual influx of IDPs is putting an increasing pressure on the coping mechanisms of already impoverished host communities as well as a strain on existing facilities in the camps.

The current IDP caseload is estimated at around 35,000 in the five camps: Jenemana (Grand Cape Mount County); Bopolu (Gbarpolu County); CARI (Bong County); TV Tower (Bong County); and Belefane (Bong County).

Issues of concern:

• protection of civilians and relief workers;
• volatile security environment;
• restricted access to beneficiaries;
• lack of funding;
• lack of reliable information and data.

Funding approved by the European Union

In July 2001, the European Commission in Brussels approved a development aid package of US$24 million for Liberia. These funds will cover activities in several sectors, including health, food security, provision of drinking water and infrastructure, over the next two years. Although some of the funds will be channeled through UN Agencies and NGOs, the majority will be channeled through the private sector and specialized government agencies.

Impact of underfunding

Four months after the launch of the revised CAP for the IDP crisis in Liberia, funding remains a major challenge. To date, there has been no response to the revised CAP for Liberia and the response to the upcoming CAP 2002 remains to be seen. The overall decline in donor support for humanitarian, reconstruction and development assistance in Liberia is having a serious and negative impact on the most vulnerable segments of Liberia's population. Since January 2000, lack of financial support for NGOs in Liberia has caused them to scale down their reconstruction and development activities and reduce the level of support they are providing to the vulnerable people.

At present, the humanitarian community has redirected existing programme funds to meet the basic emergency non-food needs of the IDPs. However, the majority of intervening agencies predict that, without additional support, they will not have sufficient financial capacity to maintain their current programming in reconstruction/development or emergency response beyond December 2001.

Given the volatile security conditions in the country, especially in Lofa County, it is unlikely that the IDPs will return to their communities in the immediate future. Even now, IDPs continue to flee the insecurity in their villages and towns.

Without additional resources, it is going to become increasingly difficult to maintain the provision of much needed assistance to the IDPs and their host communities.

The lack of funding for reconstruction/development activities is also expected to compound existing and emerging problems. The UN Agencies and NGOs provide significant support to the country's clinics, schools, water and sanitation facilities, rural infrastructure and food security. In addition, they are providing livelihood opportunities to many of the country's poor and vulnerable helping them to sustain themselves. However, the reduction in donor support for Liberia is rapidly diminishing the humanitarian community's ability to meet these basic needs of the Liberian population, over 80% of whom already live in abject poverty. Life in Liberia, for both IDPs and host communities, has again become a precarious matter of survival and dependence on humanitarian assistance. Without a rapid increase in donor support the fragile situation in Liberia could easily degenerate again into a major humanitarian emergency.

Resettlement Process on Course ?

Observations from Sierra Leone

Giving Peace a Chance

The reactivation of the peace process after ten years of civil strife in Sierra Leone has rekindled an opportunity for peace and reconciliation within the country. This welcoming development in a nation that holds over a million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) ushered in a unique opportunity for the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) together with its local and international partners to sit and plan the resettlement process. The aim of this transitional process is to provide a framework in which partner agencies can support the resettlement and reintegration of IDPs, refugees and ex-combatants along with their dependants back into their communities, strengthen their livelihood security and promote reconciliation. A central requirement of the peace process is the disarmament and demobilisation of ex-combatants and their reintegration back into society.

The Starting Point

The resettlement process started in Sierra Leone in April 2001, where the first batch of IDPs moved from the Approved School Camp in the Western Area to their home areas in Port Loko District, which had earlier been declared safe by the National Resettlement

Assessment Committee. So far a total of 45,000 IDPs have been resettled. The IDPs were provided with shelter, food and water at drop off points; where they received resettlement packages of two months food rations and standard non-food items, like blankets, pots, lamps and buckets. The resettled individuals underwent medical screening prior to movement to ensure that everyone is fit to travel. Now that the first phase of the resettlement has been completed, the GoSL and humanitarian agencies have embarked on an apartment census and verification exercise in the Western Area camps. The aim is to identify actual residents in each of the Western Area camps as part of the planning for the next phase of resettlement and camp consolidation. A core part of the process involves the planning and implementation of programmes to support the resettlement and reintegration of IDPs back into their communities in safety and with dignity. The resettlement has permitted the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance and commencement of recovery efforts in the North and East of the country, where little or no assistance has been provided for a number of years

Beneficiaries react

The resettlement comes at a time when conditions couldn't be any worse at the IDP camps. The IDPs themselves very much desire to return home, after several years of transiting from one deplorable camp to another. They are ever so grateful for the free transportation, which otherwise would have discouraged them from returning home. A female family-head upon receiving her resettlement package burst into tears, as she never imagined buying pots, which she had lost during the war. Some of the fortunate IDPs who had earlier visited their demolished hometowns actually inspired others to return home and start rebuilding their lives than stay in their current condition.

Mr. Kamara, a young displaced from Koya visiting his "one-time abode" the Parade Ground Camp, explained how incredibly the Koya community was growing. He reiterated that hundreds of people have been relocated and seemed quite adjusted to their new homes. Teachers in their determination to provide education for the children have started schools on their own meagre resources. Parents admit they feel safe now to leave their kids to play around in a healthy and secured environment.

Challenges ahead

The challenges remain enormous for the resettlement to be significantly successful, especially with the ongoing reinsertion packages currently being distributed to ex-combatants. This has stimulated a variety of enraged feelings among the IDPs, who accuse the GoSL of being biased, favouring the perpetrators of violence rather than innocent civilians who have suffered tremendously. Inspite of all its achievements, some of the IDPs that were resettled preferred to return and stay in the IDP camps, for a whole range of reasons, which are mostly associated with expectations not being met. For some , the drop-off points were too far off and they did not have enough money to further the journey; others say they were shocked to find out that there was no physical cash among the package and that the resettlement areas did not provide basic social services, such as schooling health or shelter. A lot remains to be done, especially for the longer term development, sustainability and independence - the relief to development gap needs urgent attention by both, humanitarian as well as development actors.

Flood-Ridden Upper Guinea

Still in Need of International Assistance

Following a recent interagency assessment mission with national authorities, United Nations Agencies in Guinea and a special UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team are calling on international donors to respond to existing unmet needs to assist thousands of flood victims living in the Northeast. According to a joint government of Guinea/UN/UNDAC mission report issued 29 October 2001, the initial estimate of funds required totals some US$1.8 million.

Despite receiving an initial emergency assistance from various UN agencies, NGOs and the Guinean Government over the past few weeks, the region is still in need of relief, especially in the sectors of agriculture (seeds), water and sanitation, health, education and national capacity building for disaster prevention and preparedness. The following table is a preliminary summary of those requirements (For more detailed information, please see the Government of Guinea/United Nations Agencies/UNDAC Assessment mission report, 29 October 2001.)

"We would like to draw donors' attention to the combination of elements leading to a request for additional international assistance: the worst floods in over thirty years hit the poorest part of Guinea which accommodates a large number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs)."

Vladimir Sakharov
UNDAC Team Leader

Background and Flood Facts at a Glance

• The Niger river and its tributaries overflowed in August/September 2001 causing the worst flood damage in 30 years.
  
• Government authorities report 9 dead and more than 200,000 people affected in varying degrees, including some 40,000 children under the age of 5
  
• Flood waters have destroyed rice paddies and subsidiary crops, lead to a wide spread pollution of drinking water sources, compromised health and sanitary conditions and damaged a number of classrooms.
  
• Upper Guinea is the poorest region in the country (62% of the population lives under the poverty level). To make matters worse, it is also hosts thousands of IDPs who fled border conflicts last fall.

Table of Unmet Needs following the Guinea Floods

West Africa - A Region with Possibilities... (to be continued in Issue No.2)

In recent months, the international community has seen encouraging as well as critical developments in the West Africa region: while the initiative of the Mano River Women's Peace Network has lead to a regional dialogue which seems to have reaped first results, such as the meeting of the three Foreign Ministers , the opening of the borders and the ongoing preparations for an agenda to be considered by the three Heads of States , the ongoing fighting in Lofa County in Liberia and occasional cross-border raids speak another language. While disarmament and demobilisation of former fighting forces in Sierra Leone has advanced to some 24,500 combatants since January 2001, the longer term reintegration of ex-combatants -especially of child and youth- into civil society needs to be urgently addressed in order to achieve a successful , sustainable and long term peace leading the region from emergency relief and dependence to development and finally, self-sustainability.

It is therefore crucial that the positive developments in the region be supported and strengthened. In this regard, it is necessary to focus on:

• Strengthening the political dialogue in the region;
• Developing innovative projects and programmes for longer term reintegration;
• Addressing the transition from relief to development through appropriate economic recovery programmes;
• Ensuring that human rights abuses and crimes against humanity are addressed;

Providing the appropriate human and financial resources.

We appreciate your comments and feed back!

You may wish to contact:

Miss Ute Kollies-Cummings
Humanitarian Affairs Officer
OCHA Geneva
RCB/Africa II Section
e-mail: kollies-cummings@un.org

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