Displaced fear to leave school buildings without security assurances

Thousands of people displaced by recent fighting in Liberia, who are sheltering in school buildings around the capital, Monrovia, are reluctant to leave the buildings and return to their original camps, saying they fear that it is not yet safe enough for them outside the city centre. "The government should know that they are seeking the welfare of their citizens. We are distressed at the moment. We cannot leave this school building to go back to the camps when ECOMIL [West African Peacekeepers] are not deployed", James Sei an IDP leader at William Tubman School said. The Ministry of Education issued a directive on Wednesday that all displaced people should leave the schools by 15 September, to allow schools to reopen on 20 October. On Friday, Minister Evelyn Kandakai met government and non-governmental officials to plan the reopening of schools. UNICEF estimates that 3,000 schools will reopen for 750,000 children countrywide. The schools will be staffed by 20,000 teachers and the World Food Programme (WFP) is exploring using a Work-for-Food programme to pay them. Out of more than 110 temporary shelters where the displaced live in Monrovia, 47 are schools where some 50,000 people live. Some also live in the Ministry of Education offices. They sought shelter here at the height of fighting between government forces and rebels in June- August. The Resident Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Liberia, Moses Okello, told a news conference in Monrovia on Monday that plans were underway by UN agencies and various international organisations to begin relocating the displaced people (IDPs) from the schools. "We need to empty those shelters so that schools can reopen. It is easier to coordinate and distribute relief assistance to IDPs in camps than in shelters that are spread in different locations", Okello said. The IDPs living in school buildings who spoke to IRIN on Sunday said that they want assurances of adequate security before they can return to designated camps in the western suburbs of Monrovia. Elizabeth Kemonh, an IDP leader at GW Gibson School, who said she had suffered multiple displacements from fighting for two years in western Liberia, told IRIN: "The time is not good for us to go back, everyday we hear of fighting in the interior. The country is still not safe yet" Okello said modalities are being out with ECOMIL to patrol the camps to "ensure security and confidence building among the IDPs" Hundreds of thousands of IDPs were living in seven camps around Monrovia when attacks on the western outskirt of Monrovia by rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) intensified in June and July. They fled to find refuge in the city centre. So far, relief workers estimates that only 2,000 have returned to the camps since the arrival of ECOMIL troops in Monrovia in August. Liberia's school system was so badly affected during the decade and half of conflict that half of all children who should have gone to school did not. As a result, 78 percent of Liberians are illiterate. In the northwestern counties of Lofa, Gbarpolu and Grand Cape Mount, which have experienced continued conflict since 1989, education services have been seriously disrupted. Only Monrovia managed to keep its schools open until rebel fighters stormed into its western suburbs three months ago.