Cautious optimism on humanitarian access

A senior UN relief official has expressed “cautious optimism” that progress in the delivery of humanitarian assistance to needy populations will continue. “We have been having discussions with the relevant government authorities on security, humanitarian assistance and DDR on the one hand and the RUF on the other on the specific measures to be taken to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Kingsley Amaning, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sierra Leone, told IRIN. Amaning, who is also UNHCR’s representative in Sierra Leone, said that these measures included the creation of “liaison structures” at the local level to facilitate and monitor aid delivery in the countryside. It is important that these structures are acceptable to both the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the central government, he added. Road blocks set up by ex-combatants have hampered aid agencies’ access to needy populations, according to a communique issued on Monday by the joint implementation committee of the Lome peace agreement. The Organisation for the Survival of Mankind (OSM), the RUF’s humanitarian wing, has also placed operational constraints on aid agencies. “The OSM has insisted that aid be delivered through them in areas which they control,” an aid official told IRIN. “This causes problems for the humanitarian community.” Banditry and lawlessness, particularly along the road between Lungi and Port Loko and between Port Loko and Kambia, has also created problems for aid agencies. Port Loko is east of Lungi, which lies to the north of Freetown. Kambia is north of Port Loko.