Urgent need of emergency funding for Liberia's displaced

05 December 2003

Dr John Distefano, Head of Mission for UMCOR Sierra Leone and Acting Head of Mission for UMCOR Liberia, has made an urgent request for funding to enable emergency project implementation amongst Liberian refugees in Sierra Leone and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Liberia. According to Dr Distefano there is simply too little emergency funding available to implement desperately needed aid programs aimed at assisting the victims of the conflict.

UMCOR Liberia and UMCOR Sierra Leone are currently working to implement projects such as the distribution of non-food emergency items. An appeal has been launched by the EmK Weltmission in Germany to finance hygiene kits for Liberian refugees which will be distributed by UMCOR. Dr. Distefano hopes to secure donor support thus enabling UMCOR to take over the management of Fendell, Mount Barclay and Soul Clinic IDP camps, which together have an estimated population of more than 40,000 IDPs, mainly originating from Lofa County. These camps are only temporary way stations to house the IDPs until security takes hold in their home counties. UMCOR is also carrying out food distribution in Salala IDP camp on behalf of the World Food Program (WFP).

Dr. Distefano spoke about conditions in Lofa County, once the so-called 'breadbasket' of Liberia. The county was a major focus for rebel activity and saw some of the fiercest fighting. Many of the towns have been so completely destroyed that today there is little or no evidence that they ever existed. The area has become largely depopulated since its inhabitants fled to escape the violence. Many of them made their way to refugee camps in neighboring Sierra Leone or in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. UMCOR recently conducted a needs assessment in the region which Dr. Distefano hopes will become the focus of UMCOR activity in the coming year. Programs under consideration include food for work and food security projects and UMCOR hopes to be an active player in the demilitarisation, demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration process for ex-combatants with apprenticeship and vocational skills training programs similar to those currently being implemented by UMCOR in neighboring Sierra Leone.

UMCOR has also proposed sending an assessment team to the Ivory Coast and Eastern Liberia to see if programs can be extended and to pinpoint the immediate needs of Liberian refugees and IDPs in these areas.

It is hoped that the full deployment of UNMIL troops will be effected by early 2004. Security is of paramount importance if the work of rebuilding Liberia and encouraging its displaced populations to return to their homes is to be successful.