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The number of Sierra Leonean refugees returning home from war-torn Liberia has increased sharply in recent weeks, UNHCR reported on Wednesday.
UNHCR said that since 17 December, an estimated 1,300 refugees had returned home through the Jendema border crossing, northwest of the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Before then, the return rate had been about a dozen per day, the UN agency reported.
Most of the refugees had been living at Sinje II, some 80 km northwest of Monrovia. The increase in departures was prompted by continuing conflict between anti-government rebels and pro-government forces in northern Liberia's Lofa County, reported harassment of refugees in Sinje II by Liberian soldiers, and improved security conditions in Sierra Leone following the disarmament of former combatants.
Small numbers of civilians from Liberia are also fleeing the fighting and crossing into Sierra Leone, UNHCR added.
Sinje camps I and II, which were holding some 15,000 Sierra Leonean refugees, recorded 1,500 new arrivals mainly from Lofa, during the past few days. Any mass return from Liberia - host to 30,000 Sierra Leonean refugees - coupled with the arrival of Liberian refugees, would put pressure on the "already limited reception capacities in Sierra Leone," UNHCR warned.
A new wave of violence broke out in northwestern Liberia in late November between pro-government forces and anti-government fighters said to belong to Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), a group that has been fighting since 1998 to overthrow the government of President Charles Taylor.
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