Seven more counties opened up for return of IDPS and refugees

The authorities in Liberia have opened up seven more counties for the return of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees who fled their homes during the civil war. They include Lofa and Nimba counties in the north of the country, which experienced some of the worst fighting and a massive exodus of people.

The Security Assessment Committee for Resettlement (SACR) decided last week that 13 out of 15 Liberian counties were now safe for refugees and IDPs to return to, but its decision was only made public by the UN refugee agency UNHCR on Tuesday.

Only Sinoe and Grand Kru counties, remote districts on the southeast coast which were formerly strongholds of the rebel Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), remain officially closed to resettlement.

The United Nations reckons that about 350,000 people fled to neighbouring countries during Liberia's 14-year civil war, while a further 464,000 became internally displaced. Most flocked to the squalid IDP camps that form a ring round the capital Monrovia.

About 100,000 refugees and IDPs have returned to their villages spontaneously since the civil war ended in August 2003, but the official resettlement programme organised by the UNHCR has been slow to get under way.

The UNHCR said in a statement that 6,500 refugees and about 30,000 IDPs had returned to their home towns and villages through its official resettlement programme which began on October 1.

The seven new counties opened up for resettlement by the SACR are Lofa, Nimba and Grand Gedeh along the northern frontier with Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, Montserrado and Grand Bassa in the centre of the country, and River Gee and Maryland in the southeast.

The SACR comprises representatives from Liberia's transitional government, UN agencies active in the country, the United Nations' 15,000-strong peacekeeping force in Liberia and civil society groups.

“This [decision] is not about security per se, but about whether the entire UN fabric is ready to respond to the arrival of hundreds of people,” explained Paul Risley, a spokesman for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

That was why the remote counties of Grand Kru and Sinoe had still not been cleared for resettlement, he added.

“There are only the bare bones of UN infrastructure in these two counties. Both have Ethiopian peacekeepers and are considered calm – it’s just a question of logistics,” said Risley.

However, elsewhere some security problems remain. Maryland County, a coastal district on the Ivorian border, was cleared for resettlement last year, but Risley said no convoys would be going to there until a night time curfew following riots in the town of Harper last month, had been lifted.

UNHCR said this week it had budgetted US$14 m to assist the resettlement of IDPs this year, but some aid workers say this is inadequate given the tough conditions people will be returning to.

“It is not enough money given the level of assistance that will be required,” said Nicky Smith, Country Director of the US-based International Rescue Committee (IRC).

Smith said she was concerned that the poor level of public services available in the interior would dissuade many IDPs from leaving their camps, where international assistance is starting to dry up.

“Vulnerable groups, such as female-headed households and the elderly, will end up left behind… and staying in the camps is not an ideal situation either,” she said.

“The money available is drying up and a lot of NGOs are leaving the camps as they don’t have the capacity to work in the camps and in the towns,” said Smith.

Siah Fayiah, who lives at the Wilson Corner IDP camp on the western outskirts of Monrovia with her daughter and four grandchildren, is among those who has doubts about moving.

“I have heard them say we should go home, but how can we do this when everything we had got destroyed?” she told IRIN.

“In my village for example, there is no food, no medicine, no houses and worst of all we have no materials to build new houses or money to restart life when we return,” said Siah.

She comes from Kolahun in Lofa county in the far northwest of Liberia. The heavily forested district was considered the bread basket of Liberia, but much of its population fled to escape fierce fighting between the LURD rebel movement and the government of former President Charles Taylor.

There are 90,000 people from Lofa living in IDP camps, compared to only 9,000 from Nimba. There most of those who fled their homes crossed over the nearby border to Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire.

UNHCR estimates that there are a total of 464,000 IDPs in Liberia. Some 262,000 are registered at official camps, while the rest live in unofficial squatter camps or lodge with friends and family.

Justin Bagirishya, country representative of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said school feeding programmes would play a key role in encouraging IDPs to return home.

“School feeding programmes are very important as many people will feel reluctant to return if they are unsure their children will be fed.” he said.

While all the agencies acknowledge that not all basic services are in place, IRC is concerned that returnees, both IDP and refugee, know what to expect.

“It’s a difficult call. Returning will be tough, but staying in the camps is not ideal either,” Smith said.

“As long as people are able to make informed choices about whether to return or not – then that is the best we can hope for,” she added.

On Wednesday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers joined a convoy of Liberian refugees returning overland from Sierra Leone.

Lubbers is assessing refugee return movements in the region as part of a regional tour through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia that will wind up in Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday.