IDPs need shelter, UN agency says

Thousands of people who fled insecurity in Lofa County, northern Liberia, for neighbouring Bong County need shelter, according to WFP, which is providing food for the IDPs. “NGOs are doing the best they can but there is an obvious need for non-food items such as plastic sheeting for tents,” a WFP source told IRIN. Many of the IDPs in Bong are living in abandoned buildings that were partially destroyed during civil war in the 1990s, warehouses, an agricultural centre and the open air. Humanitarian workers are trying to register the IDPs, who number at least 20,000 in Bong and over 4,000 in Grand Cape Mount County, southwest of Lofa, the source added. Official estimates put the number of IDPs in Liberia at about 60,000. Lofa, scene of fighting between pro- and anti-government forces, is still a no-go area for the UN. “We do not know what is going on there so we are concerned,” the source said.