IRIN Special Report on displacement in Lofa County

Over 25,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Voinjama and Kolahun in upper Lofa County, according to a report from an interagency humanitarian assessment mission. The mission's findings are based on a one-day assessment visit on 20 August to several villages in Zorzor district in the southeast of Lofa County, some 330 km northeast of Monrovia. Konia, a village some 50 km south of Voinjama, was the nearest the mission got to the scene of the fighting that broke out about two weeks ago in upper Lofa between government troops and armed dissidents. The mission reported that 7,000 displaced were in Voinjama district (5,000 in Tinabu five km south of Voinjama, 2,000 in Luyeama 40 km south of Voinjama) and 18,000 displaced were in Zorzor district (6,000 in Konia, 1,000 in Zuwulor, 4,000 in Fissebu, 4,000 in Zorzor, 3,000 in Salayea). The mission included representatives of several humanitarian organisations such as the Lutheran World Service, International Rescue Committee, Liberian Red Cross, World Food Programme and the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC). "Many of the displaced are living in school buildings, clinics and other public structures," Alexander Kulue, executive director of LRRRC, told IRIN in Monrovia. "Some of them are just living in the open air." Kulue, whose commission is the government body responsible for refugee and displacement issues, said there were reportedly hundreds of men, women and children walking from Zorzor towards Gbarnga in Bong County, which lies just southeast of Lofa. Some of them, he said, would undoubtedly want to continue to Monrovia. "Our policy is to encourage these people to remain in Gbarnga so that they can return to Kolahun and Voinjama when conditions improve," he told IRIN. There were 250 displaced in Gbarnga and 200 in Phebe, 10 km west of Gbarnga, according to the mission. "The immediate needs of the displaced persons are food, shelters, clothing, medication, utensils, blankets, foot wear, safe drinking water and latrines," the mission's joint assessment report said. The little available food had been exhausted by the large influx of displaced and the population was "barely surviving on bush yam, cassava and potato leaves", according to the report. Several cases of malnutrition were also recorded by the assessment team. The team observed a shortage of drugs in the clinics in the villages visited and saw that many children were suffering from a variety of ailments, including scabies, malaria, fever, coughs, diarrhoea, dysentery and body pain. The mission reported that "many of the women and elderly people were seen in rags", while "many of the children appeared to be naked without footwear". This was attributed to their rapid departure from their homes. The mission recommended the emergency distribution of food and non-food items. Other key recommendations included the provision of medical assistance for the displaced and the construction of shelters, latrines and more hand pumps. Once their immediate needs had been dealt with, the assessment team recommended, towns and villages destroyed during the incursion would need to be rehabilitated and the resettlement of displaced persons in their home areas encouraged through the provision of basic farming and shelter materials.