Four counties declared safe for return of refugees and IDPs

The Liberian government, the United Nations and several relief agencies have jointly declared four counties in western Liberia safe for refugees to go home to.

Philip Dwuye, the executive director of the government-run Liberian Refugees, Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) told IRIN on Thursday that a joint security assessment had concluded that Bomi, Gbarpolu, Grand Cape Mount and Margibi counties were safe for refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) to resettle in.

Bomi, Gbarpolu and Grand Cape Mount are former strongholds of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement situated between the capital, Monrovia, and the western border with Sierra Leone.

Margibi county, which lies north of the capital, was held until the end of Liberia's 14-year civil war by forces loyal to former president Charles Taylor.

“For now, those are the counties where we can guarantee the security of returnees and we are assessing the security conditions in other parts of Liberia, especially around the border line where we know most of those Liberian refugees want to return to,” Dwuye said.

Curiously, the security assessment committee, which included representatives of the LRRRC, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and several non-governmental organisations, did not declare Montserrado county, in which the city of Monrovia is situated, a safe area.

Dwuye said this was simply a procedural issue because the security assessment there had not yet been completed.

Montserrado county contains most of the camps that host the bulk of Liberia's 300,000 IDPs. The city of Monrovia has been the target of many of the estimated 50,000 refugees who have returned spontaneously since the civil war ended in August last year.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, aims to start the organised repatriation of an estimated 350,000 Liberian refugees living in other West African countries on 1 October to those areas officially declared safe.

“The UNHCR and the LRRRC are working closely to have 50,000 Liberian refugees resettled by the end of the year and we also hope to start the resettlement of IDPs a few weeks after the organised repatriation resumes,” Dwuye said.

But he added that the authorities could not prevent refugees and IDPs from resettling in areas of Liberia that had not yet received clearance.

“This depends on the personal feelings of the refugees or IDPs. Already, we have reports that thousands of refugees have voluntarily been returning to Grand Gedeh, Maryland, Nimba and Lofa counties when we have not placed them in our safety zones,” he said.

These counties border neighbouring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire and are expected to absorb most of those refugees seeking to return home.

However, the disarmament of former LURD combatants in Lofa county in northwestern Liberia, only started last week.

And a planned disarmament centre in the southwestern port town of Harper to collect weapons from fighters of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) rebel group in Maryland and parts of Grand Gedeh has yet to open.

“As soon as we get the green light from UNMIL, which is in charge of security, our teams move into those areas to assess them and if found conducive for return, we will declare them safe,” Dwuye said.