UN works on gaining access outside Monrovia

(New York: 26 August 2003): Monrovia is still relatively calm, despite lat week's heavy looting of the Parliament and the Judiciary buildings situated between Presidential Palace and Police Headquarters, resulting in the loss of vital legislative documents and equipment. A number of families have started returning to their homes and IDP camps in Montserrado. Business is slowly picking up and traffic is increasing. Life is slowly returning to normalcy, with some businesses including a major supermarket in Central Monrovia opening.
The Special Humanitarian Coordinator, Ross Mountain of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is pursuing discussions with government and rebel forces in Liberia to promote safe and unhindered access to areas outside Monrovia. Since the signing of an agreement between the UN and the signatories to the Peace Agreement for the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, faction leaders have shown a greater willingness to co-operate with the relief agencies.

Information on the situation in the rest of the country is largely anecdotal aside from the few towns reached in recent days by humanitarian missions. However, 3,000 to 4,000 people are reportedly on the road from Gbatala to Salala towards displaced camps in central Liberia, amid reports of fresh fighting between government and rebel forces. Fighting has been reported near Gbatala, about 100 kilometers northeast of Monrovia.

An estimated 50,000 people are currently displaced by four years of brutal fighting in three camps at Salala, Totota and Maimu about 80 kilometers northeast of Monrovia. A cholera outbreak was reported at Salala last week.

The humanitarian community is still working on gaining access outside Monrovia. Missions to Bo Waterside, Buchanan, Tubmanburg and greater Monrovia and Montserrado have been conducted. The UN inter-agency mission to Bo Waterside noted that despite bad roads between Bo and Zimmi in Sierra Leone, plans to repatriate Sierra Leonean refugees and transport relief supplies by road should be pursued. Efforts are being made to reopen the border with Sierra Leone. In Buchanan, UN and NGO missions held discussions with MODEL commanders who welcomed humanitarian agencies. There are an estimated 45,000 IDPs in the town. IDPs reported harassment by militia groups including looting and threats. In Tubmanburg, Ross Mountain, the Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Liberia, and other senior UN officials toured the area with the LURD Commander last week. The situation there remained precarious. UN officials impressed upon LURD authorities the importance of returning vehicles to humanitarian agencies. An adviser to the LURD commander requested for a full list of the lost vehicles. In Greater Monrovia and Montserrado, an assessment mission to former - largely empty -- IDP camps in Montserrado County was undertaken over the weekend to assess conditions. Findings indicate that they are in reasonable condition; the most urgent needs are food, tarpaulins, restoring health services and the rehabilitation of schools. The team also explored possibilities of ECOMIL deployment around these camps to ensure security for returning IDPs who currently thought to be in central Monrovia.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Muktar Ali Farah,
Head of OCHA Liberia (in Monrovia);
cell phone + (377) 47 550 571/47 518 490
E-mail: farah.muktar@undp.org / muktarfarah@yahoo.com

Rosemary Musumba,
Reports/Public information Officer, OCHA Liberia;
cellphone + (377 47) 53 00 48
Email: r.musumba@ocha.ci / rosemary.musumba@undp.org