US humanitarian assistance in the Mano River area

The United States, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has spent more than US $126 million over the past 12 months on relief efforts in the countries of the Mano River Union - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the agency reported on Wednesday. The bulk of that money, just over US $75 million, went to activities in Sierra Leone, US $41 million was earmarked for Guinea while Liberia received US $9.6 million, USAID said in a report titled '‘Mano river Countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone)- Complex emergency’. In Sierra Leone, UN agencies such as WFP and UNICEF, and NGOs - including CARE, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Action Contre la Faim (ACF) - received money for programmes in education, health and sanitation, and population resettlement. Food security programmes received special attention because the country has some 320,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), who are generally the ones most vulnerable to food insecurity, USAID said. The report, dated 3 October, notes that the country’s security situation, which has remained calm in recent weeks, has been aided by the increasing presence of UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) troops and the disarming of irregular forces, including the rebel Revolutionary United Forces, and the pro-government Civil Defense Forces (CDF) militia. The war between the RUF and the government forces, aided by the CDF, was marked by severe human rights abuses, such as the cutting-off of limbs and branding of civilians by the RUF. Some 20,000 people were killed and another two million displaced, USAID said. The RUF and the government signed a peace accord in 1999, but bringing peace back to the country has proved difficult. In Guinea, the bulk of US assistance came from the Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration, which sponsored US $22 million worth of projects in education, agriculture and refugee relocation and repatriation. Child survival programmes, democracy and human rights and self-help initiatives also received funding. Full-blown war has not broken out in Guinea, but it experienced some armed incursions in 2000, and its border areas remain insecure. Despite the insecurity over the past decade, "Guinea provided a relatively safe haven for refugees", USAID said. According to the US agency, Guinea has some 190,000 IDPs and another 191,000 refugees. Funding to Liberia covered activities in nutrition, education, food security, human rights and child survival, and refugee/IDP programmes. The largest refugee/IDP population in the Mano River area are Liberians who fled war in 1989-1997. Peace agreements were followed by elections won in 1997 by President Charles Taylor, but real peace has proved elusive. There has been fighting off-and-on for three years in the northern county of Lofa and relations with Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the international community have been strained by accusations that Taylor's government supports rebel activities. "The security situation in Liberia remains precarious," USAID said. The MRU has experienced "one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises", USAID said. Its consequences spread to neighbouring countries such as Cote d'Ivoire, which hosts over 120,000 refugees, most of them Liberians. The Mano River Union, which was created in 1973 to foster ties between the three countries, is virtually defunct. However efforts are being made by the three governments, through a series of recent meetings, to bring about peace and security and restore diplomatic relations. The ministerial peace talks are due to culminate next year with a summit between presidents Lansana Conte of Guinea, Charles Taylor of Liberia and Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone. [The full report is posted at http://www.usaid.gov/hum_response/ofda/manoce_sr1_fy02.html]