UNHCR repatriating hundreds of Liberians

Some 720 more Liberian refugees are being repatriated by boat from Freetown in an ongoing operation conducted by UNHCR, the agency told IRIN today. UNHCR Regional Information Officer Khassim Diagne said the first batch of 200 arrived yesterday aboard the M.V. Overbeck, a ship chartered from Guinea. “There will be four more such trips over the next three to four weeks,” he said. The returnees, who asked to be repatriated, were among the 8,000 Liberians in Sierra Leone when Revolutionary United Front/Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (RUF/AFRC) rebels attacked the capital on 6 January. They were given the usual two months’ WFP food ration and non-food items such as blankets, cooking utensils, mats and plastic sheets. Around 100,000 people have been taken back to Liberia by the UNHCR since the UN agency began a general repatriation of Liberians from Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea early in 1998. Another 160,000 have gone back on their own.