Liberian refugees relocated

The number of Liberian refugees presenting themselves for relocation within Sierra Leone has increased recently following a mass information campaign by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, reported on Wednesday.

Last week alone, UNHCR said, it relocated 1,400 Liberians from Kailahun District in eastern Sierra Leone to camps in Bo District in the south of the country. This number represented a sharp rise jump from the previous count of between 400 and 800 per week, the UN agency added.

The campaign informed refugees of the dangers of staying near the border with Liberia and of help available to them in one of UNHCR's four camps used for hosting Liberian refugees in the interior of Sierra Leone. A lack of food and the pending rainy season also encouraged Liberians to move from makeshift camps along the border, UNHCR added.

Of the estimated 7,000 non-registered Liberian refugees still in the Kailahun area, about 70 percent were ready to relocate, UNHCR said. However, it added, in Pujehun District in southern Sierra Leone, less than half of some 3,000 spontaneously settled Liberians say they want to go to a camp. Some have good connections with the local population while others want to stay near the border to cultivate their fields in Liberia.

UNHCR has aided nearly 14,000 Liberian refugees since the emergency relocation programme began in Sierra Leone in late December 2001. The refugees were fleeing fighting between Liberian government troops and armed dissidents.

Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy organisation, said on Monday that the plight of Liberian refugees in Sierra Leone required an "urgent response" from the international community.

More than 250,000 Liberians sought refuge in west and central African countries when the Liberian civil war broke out in 1989. Factions involved in the war officially disbanded in early 1997 and Charles Taylor, a former warlord, was elected president later the same year. However Taylor's government, since 1998, has faced renewed hostilities from a dissident group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy.