IDP verification under way in Lofa

More than 6,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are being verified in the town of Beyan in Liberia’s troubled northern county of Lofa before being relocated to sites in neighbouring Bong County, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Friday. The exercise, begun last week, is being undertaken by the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission and humanitarian agencies, according to WFP, which said it was expected to last a week. WFP has been providing the IDPs with food, but since inter-governmental organisations are not allowed to leave the Monrovia area without permission from the Foreign Ministry, WFP has had to use commercial trucks to deliver food to the IDPs. This is not seen as a durable solution as the local commercial fleets are insufficient and often unreliable, WFP said. Meanwhile, humanitarian sources in Abidjan told IRIN at the weekend that NGOs, humanitarian agencies and the state agency responsible for refugees have begun holding periodic meetings to prepare for a possible influx of Liberians into western Cote d’Ivoire. For the moment, they say, more than 500 Liberians are known to have entered the country following the outbreak of the conflict in Lofa, although the real number could be higher.