WFP distributes first food in Buchanan

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) sent a first consignment of food aid to the rebel-held port city of Buchanan, 120 km southeast of the capital Monrovia on Wednesday. It said the food, sent by truck from Monrovia, would be distributed to about 32,000 displaced people by Catholic Relief Services (CRS). CRS Country Director, Raymond Studer, told IRIN: "The distribution of cereal, beans and vegetable oil in Buchanan is going on very well. Another convoy carrying an additional 100 tonnes will leave Monrovia for Buchanan on Thursday." The food was trucked to the city following the deployment of 550 West African peacekeeping troops just outside Buchanan at the weekend. The Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) rebel group, which captured Buchanan nearly two months ago, refused to let them enter the city. However, despite continuing concerns over security, WFP decided to begin food distribution in Buchanan on Wednesday after MODEL commanders lifted a curfew imposed on the city. "Security remains a huge problem for most of the country. There are still hundreds of thousands of people out there, who have received no humanitarian aid for months," WFP Liberia Country Director, Justin Bagirishya said. "It is vital that we reach them over the coming weeks." Over the past month, WFP has provided food assistance to 420,000 people in Liberia. Most of these had been displaced from their homes by recent fighting in and around Monrovia and had sought refuge in temporary shelters in the capital. However, the UN agency's ability to distribute food was seriously impaired by the theft of its truck fleet by combatants and the looting of half the 10,000 tonnes of food in its warehouses in the port of Monrovia during early August. Geoffery Rudd, the European Union representative in Liberia, said on Wednesday that the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) composed of representatives of the United Nations, European Union and the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS) began its delayed work in mapping the ceasefire position of the warring parties on the ground. The team, which is due to help enforce a peace agreement signed on 18 August, met representatives of the Liberian government and MODEL in Monrovia. "MODEL and government representatives held fruitful discussions with the JMC. All of them promised to report to the team within a week the exact and detailed location of their respective positions," Rudd said. However, the main rebel movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) did not attend the meeting. One LURD official told IRIN: "The information to attend the meeting reached us at short notice and it needed adequate time to prepare" On Monday General Festus Okonkwo, the head of the ECOMIL West African peacekeeping force, told reporters, "In case there is any more violation of the ceasefire, the JMC will establish the circumstances and inform ECOMIL. Appropriate punitive measures will be taken against parties involved in such violations." The JMC's arrival followed recent skirmishes between LURD and government fighters in north central Liberia that frightened tens of thousands of civilians into abandoning their homes. The government and MODEL have also clashed in the southeast.