Senior UN humanitarian official departing for Liberia

(New York: 8 August 2003) - Ms. Carolyn McAskie, the United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, is traveling to the region today on mission to strengthen UN relief efforts in Liberia. When security conditions allow, she will travel into Monrovia to meet with representatives of UN agencies, humanitarian NGOs and donor governments to discuss how best to respond to urgent humanitarian needs in Liberia.
"I'm pleased to hear of a pause in the fighting in Monrovia. It will allow us to bring in more aid, but access is only the first step. Even if the fighting in Monrovia stops completely, people will need food d, clean water, shelter, and medical treatment for diseases like cholera. We anticipate that the needs in the rest of Liberia, most of which has been cut off from aid for months, will be enormous and we have to be prepared to respond to them", Ms. McAskie said.

For the first time in weeks yesterday, thousand of Monrovians felt safe enough to come out to the streets of the capital, meters away from bridges that were the scenes of intense fighting just days before. Some shops were re-opened for business and humanitarian workers began to increase the range of their activities. The non-governmental organization (NGO), Doctors Without Borders, reported that reports of cholera had decreased, but that the trend was likely caused by inadequate access of patients to their clinic at the national stadium.

Another NGO, Save the Children, on donated basic supplies to the ELWA Hospital and plans to give drugs and medical supplies this week to be used for patients. Meanwhile, the hospital has resumed health services to a number of IDP camps in Monrovia. These include curative, preventive and reproductive health services for some five centres for the internally displaced. Lutheran World Service also distributed High Protein Biscuits, blankets and health kits to more than 700 patients at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia.

Ms. McAskie urges donors to support the United Nations revised Humanitarian Appeal for Liberia, which seeks $69 million dollars to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of some 1 million Liberians. "If we can raise more than a billion dollars for humanitarian needs in Iraq, can't we also raise a relatively modest $69 million for Liberia?", she asked.