ICRC uses airstrip to relaunch operations in Lofa county

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has rehabilitated the airstrip in the northern town of Voinjama near the frontier with Guinea in order to support a series of new health and water projects in Lofa county. Reto Stocker, the ICRC head of delegation in Liberia, told IRIN on Monday that the airstrip had been out of use for 14 years until an ICRC plane landed there on a test flight on 25 November. The first of a series of regular supply flights was planned on Tuesday, he added. Stocker said: "The road conditions to Voinjama are extremely difficult. In order to have a reliable and timely exchange between Monrovia and Voinjama, we started working on the airstrip." Lofa county, in northwestern Liberia, became off-limits for relief agencies after the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group launched an insurgency there in 1999. However relief agencies began returning to the remote area last October, two months after the signing of a peace agreement to end 14 years of civil war. Stocker said the ICRC had started chlorinating and rehabilitating wells and providing health services in four towns in Lofa county. "We have started water and sanitation and medical activities in northern Lofa, our water engineers have re-equipped, cleaned and put up pumps [including] two in Kolahun, two in Foya, four in Voinjama and two in Zorzor," Stocker said. Kolahun and Foya, situated west of Voinjama close to the Guinean border crossing of Gueckedougou, were once bustling towns, but they were devastated by fighting after LURD launched its insurgency four years ago. Zorzor is about 45 km south of Voinjama near the Guinean border town of Macenta. Relief workers who visited Zorzor in November said the town was in ruins. Stocker said the ICRC was supplying four health centres in Lofa county, located in Voinjama, Zorzor, Foya and Kolahun, with essential drugs. "As time goes by, we would have a medical delegate assigned in Lofa", he added. Stocker said: "It is very clear that it is only small fraction of the previous population of Lofa who decided to remain or were forced to stay under very difficult times." Relief workers who visited Voinjama in October estimated that 2,000-3,000 civilians were left in the town, down from a pre-war population of 15,000.