At least 10,000 refugees have fled to Sierra Leone, says UNHCR

At least 10,000 Liberian refugees have fled their country for Sierra Leone following recent fighting between government and rebels, while others fled to Cote d`Ivoire and Ghana, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said on Friday. In Sierra Leone, he said, the arrivals were being relocated from the border town of Jendema to camps farther inside the country. Some 2,029 refugees had been relocated, but convoys continued to bring more daily, the spokesman said. On Tuesday, Janowski had said some 300-500 people had been arriving daily in Sierra Leone from Liberia. He said most originated from Lofa County in northern Liberia, and that they had already been displaced several times before the latest clashes forced them across the border. People fleeing east towards the Ivorian border, according to humanitarian sources, were largely worried the fighting might reach the capital. The Ivorian Red Cross reported that 1,895 Liberians entered Cote d'Ivoire from 19 to 24 February. Between 11 and 28 February, UNCHR also registered 907 arrivals in Cote d'Ivoire, according to figures provided to IRIN by the refugee agency, bringing the number registered in Cote d'Ivoire since April 2001 to 8,943. UNHCR reported the refugees as saying that young men were being forced to join the pro-government forces. They also told the UN agency that they had to do barter deals with security forces in order to reach the border. Not all of them stay in Cote d'Ivoire. UNHCR's regional director for West Africa, Abou Moussa, told IRIN that "1,139 Liberians have been received in Ghana" since the beginning of the latest upheavals in Liberia. According to UNHCR-Ghana, the majority were people who had lived in Ghana before.