Thousands cut off from aid in the east, says MSF

Fighting in eastern Liberia, including an attack on Zwedru town in Grand Gedeh County on Thursday, has prevented the entire region bordering Cote d'Ivoire from receiving aid, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF-France) reported in a press statement on Tuesday. MSF said nearly 75,000 refugees, among other vulnerable people, lived in the region. "Following violent combat in Liberia, some tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are now cut off from desperately needed aid and assistance," MSF said. "Last week's fighting led to significant population displacement in eastern Liberia, central Liberia and in Monrovia's outskirts." Thousands of people from the northeastern county of Nimba, MSF said, had fled towards Guinea following an offensive on Ganta town on Saturday. Another 30,000 people in central Liberia's Bong County had fled new offensives, and headed towards the outskirts of the capital, Monrovia, while 50,000 people were caught between the front line and Monrovia in Montserrado County. "MSF is concerned about the fate of tens of thousands of refugees and IDPs in Liberia, and that of the populations affected by renewed fighting," the statement said. "MSF calls for everything possible to be done to protect humanitarian aid workers, expatriate volunteers and national teams so that aid operations may resume as quickly as possible." Meanwhile, fighting northwest of Monrovia subsided on Monday, after government forces reportedly repulsed rebels from the Ricks camp for the displaced and some of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) had reportedly started returning to the camp. There were, however, reports of heavily armed rebels 27 km from Monrovia. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Liberia, Marc Destanne de Bernis, and the head of the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Muktar Ali Farah, visited IDP camps in Montserrado County and found that Ricks camp was deserted, with few IDPs returning to collect their belongings and harvest their kitchen gardens. "IDPs expressed fear of forced conscription of their young men and women by government security agents," OCHA said on Tuesday. "There were reports that government security men have also visited Jartondo, Blamasee and Sergbeh to conscript boys as young as 15 years ... some 92 IDPs, all young men, were conscripted at Wilson camp on 26 March."