Thousands reported displaced by fighting

Thousands of civilians have fled fighting in north-western Liberia, the programme officer for the Liberia Refugee, Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), Cleophus Pearson, told IRIN on Wednesday. "Around 11,000 civilians have arrived in the town of Zorzor and we have already got a team on the ground to conduct an assessment of their needs," Pearson said. The LRRRC said many of the internally displaced people (IDPs) were from the towns of Foya, Kolahun and Voinjama, which are within the zone where government troops and rebels have been fighting for about a week. The IDPs have been arriving in Zorzor, on the edge of the zone and some 230 km north of Monrovia, since the rebels, whose identity is still unclear, invaded the north-western county of Lofa and captured several towns and villages. "The situation in Zorzor is calm now but no-one can say whether more people will arrive," Pearson told IRIN. Information Minister Joe Mulbah said on Tuesday that government troops had retaken Kolahun and Foya, but were still fighting for Voinjama. However, a rebel told the BBC his "resistance group" was still in control of towns they had captured in Lofa and had lost no territory. News organisations reported on Tuesday that the government had lifted the state of emergency imposed last week in Lofa although the clashes continued. President Charles Taylor, in an address to the nation, described the situation as "still fluid" and said that the security forces were doing everything possible to contain it. He urged Liberians throughout the country to be on the alert and report any unusual movement to the security forces, according to Radio Liberia International (RLI). He added that he would seek approval from the national legislature for a budget to underwrite the cost of the war. UNHCR evacuates staff Aid workers were evacuated by helicopter from Vahun, also in the northwest, to Monrovia on 15 August after warnings from the liberian military in Vahun, Judith Kumin, UNHCR spokeswoman, said at a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. Some 22 UNHCR and NGO staff were evacuated to the capital on Sunday, the spokeswomen said. Earlier reports indicated that 15 staff were evacuated on Saturday. Last week a group of six international and three local aid workers in Kolahun were abducted by armed men and taken to the border with Guinea. The Liberian military warned UNHCR that rebels could move on Vahun, so the staff were relocated to Monrovia, Kumin said. Both Vahun, which holds around 12,000 Sierra Leonean refugees who fled to Liberia in early 1998, and Kolahun, which hosts some 20,000 refugees, are close to the border with Sierra Leone. UNHCR expressed concern that the absence of humanitarian personnel and the reported looting of food stocks might cause difficulties for the refugees. Aid agency stocks and offices were pillaged during similar attacks in Lofa in April, although vehicles were later recovered. There were some reports that undersupplied elements in the army helped themselves to food stores, Kumin said. Meanwhile, UNHCR is talking to the government about the security situation and the conditions for a quick return of aid workers to Lofa. The instability has also affected the repatriation to that area of Liberian refugees, due to be completed by the end of the year. So far some 120,000 Liberian refugees from Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea have returned with the help of UNHCR while more than 200,000 others have gone back on their own.