Aid agencies to set up transit centres

Aid agencies in Liberia plan to set up transit centres at Sawmill and Nyomo towns in Bomi county, northwest of the capital Monrovia, humanitarian sources said on Wednesday.

"These centres will help get people who are still wandering not knowing where to go, to come out in the open," an aid worker told IRIN. "We are also looking out on the possibility of establishing ourselves in Tubmanburg [in Bomi county]," the source added.

Various agencies had taken up specific tasks in meeting the needs of up to 4,000 internally displaced people who have managed to get to Sawmill and Nyomo, humanitarian sources said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres-France (MSF-France) was searching for ways to provide water while Save the Children Fund (SCF) has set up diarrhoea control facilities in the transit centres and were also paying close attention to mother and child support, a source said.

SCF which plans to have a base in Tubmanburg, since it moved out of Bopolu because of the fighting, was reviewing the possibilities of restarting vaccination among displaced children, the source added. Other agencies including Lutheran World Federation, SCF, the World Vision and the local Red Cross also pulled out because of the fighting.

According to the source, the displaced people in Gemana camp in the northwestern Gbarpolu county which had a population of 7,000, had remained in the camp. "The displaced in the camp are not happy with the fighting but they opted not to flee," the source added.