Banks and Sierra Leone border reopen

Small signs are emerging that life in the Liberian capital Monrovia is beginning to return to normal following the signing of a peace agreement on 18 August aimed at ending 14 years of civil war. Banks have begun to reopen for the first time in nearly three months and the government is talking of reopening schools on October 1. Overland travel to Sierra Leone has also become possible for the first time in six months, even though this involves a precarious 90 km trip through territory controlled by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement. The main border crossing at Bo Waterside reopened to pedestrians last Saturday, although it remains closed to vehicles for the time being. Commercial banks in Monrovia closed on 6 June as the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement launched the first of three attacks on the capital. However, the state-owned Liberian Bank for Development and Investment reopened its doors this week following the signing of a peace agreement on 18 August. Information Minister Reginald Goodridge told IRIN the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) would reopen on Monday. The two other main banks in Monrovia, Ecobank and Tradevco Bank and International Bank, were expected to follow suit soon after, he added. The closure of the banks hampered what little commercial activity could still continue after LURD overran the northwestern suburbs of Monrovia and pounded the city centre with mortar bombs and rockets. Relief organisations were forced to fly in large quantities of dollars in cash to continue paying their staff and buy in essential services. Education ministry officials told UN and relief agency representatives on Wednesday they were hoping to resume normal school classes on October 1, two weeks before acting president Moses Blah hands over power to a new broad-based transitional government. However, the reopening of schools, most of which have been turned into temporary shelters for thousands of people displaced from their homes by the recent fighting in Monrovia, has not yet been officially announced. Aid workers quoted education ministry officials as saying that schools would be reopened in phases because of the still volatile security situation. Those in Monrovia, where the presence of a West African peacekeeping force affords better public safety, would be the first to resume classes. The bridge over the Mano river to Sierra Leone at Bo Waterside was reopened to pedestrians even though the territory between the frontier and Monrovia remains firmly under LURD control. Jacques Klein, the UN special envoy to Liberia met Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in Freetown earlier this week to ask that the border be reopened to vehicle traffic as well to facilitate humanitarian access. The United Nations is keen to bring food and other supplies into Liberia overland from Sierra Leone and would like to resume the repatriation of the 13,500 remaining Sierra Leonean refugees in the country by road. Until now the refugees have been repatriated by sea. But the Guinea-registered ferry that was being used, the MV Overbeck, suffered engine failure at sea on Sunday, shortly after leaving Monrovia with nearly 200 people on board. It was finally towed into Freetown on Thursday after drifting on the high seas for five days. Sierra Leone closed its border with Liberia in February after LURD fighters seized control of all of western Liberia, pushing several demoralised hundred government troops into Sierra Leone to seek refuge. But last Saturday border guards began allowing pedestrians to cross the international bridge freely in both directions on Saturday. An IRIN correspondent who visited Bo Waterside on Thursday was told by Liberian and Sierra Leonean officials that more than 500 Liberian refugees had returned to Liberia since then. At least 75 came home on Thursday carrying mattresses and other personnel belongings. Varney Tombekai, one of the returnees, told IRIN: “I am very happy to return home. It is better to live in your country than being a refugee. I can now see peace in Liberia. ”He said many of the Liberian refugees sheltering in the nearby Sierra Leonean towns of Zimmi and Jenema were eager to return. Liberia's northern border with Guinea remains inaccessible from Monrovia because of recent fighting near the LURD-held town of Gbarnga which straddles the main road to Guinea. However, many people have begun to transit through Sierra Leone to Guinea instead. On Thursday, a few Liberians were simply crossing into Sierra Leone to purchase food and other commodities like soap, milk, and sugar among others. “Thank God, we can now do our businesses again. I am appealing to the Sierra Leonean government to open the borders to cars so we can bring more goods and food to Liberia and our people can visit some of their relatives inside Sierra Leone”, a female trader said. Food remains scarce in the LURD-controlled towns and villages along the 90 km road between Monrovia and the Sierra Leone border. Several villagers told IRIN they were living on yams and cassava growing wild in the bush, but these were becoming difficult to find. Relief agencies are gradually establishing a presence in the area. Medecins Sans Frontieres has opened a mobile clinic in the town of Tubmanburg, 60 km northwest of Monrovia and the UN children’s Fund (UNICEF) has resumed the immunisation of children in the area. UNICEF and its partners have mounted a seven-day campaign targetting 42,000 children, who have had no access to immunization facilities since February. Many of them have been displaced with their families to Tubmanburg from other parts of western Liberia.