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UNHCR suspends repatriation of Liberians

    ABIDJAN

    Trouble on the border between Guinea and Liberia has led the UNHCR to suspend the repatriation of Liberian refugees, UNHCR announced on Friday.

    The UN agency said it was reviewing its plans in case of a new influx of Liberian refugees as occurred in August 1999 when, as now, there was fighting between Liberian security forces and armed dissidents in Lofa County, northern Liberia.

    The UNHCR said it was monitoring the border near Guinea’s Macenta prefecture, which borders on Lofa. Guinea has 125,000 Liberian refugees, of whom 50,000 are in Macenta.

    Last August’s fighting caused UNHCR to freeze a voluntary repatriation programme for Liberian refugees for about eight months. The programme resumed in May and, according to UNHCR, more than 5,000 of the 32,000 Liberians who registered for repatriation this year went home in recent weeks.

    The operation was to have stopped in mid-July and resume in October so as to avoid the rainy season, but UNHCR said it feared the new hostilities might prevent the resumption.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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