More insecurity

Liberia’s Defence Ministry reported renewed fighting in the northern county of Lofa even as relief organisations continued to appeal for assistance for people displaced by the insecurity there. Defence Minister Daniel Chea said on Tuesday that Lofa was under attack by Guinea-based rebels, AFP and humanitarian sources reported. Chea urged the international community to pressure Conakry into stopping “armed incursions” into Liberian territory, AFP said. “About 06:45 this morning my forces in Voinjama (the main town in Lofa) informed me about renewed attacks in the area from Guinea,” AFP quoted Chea as saying on Tuesday. “They came under heavy mortar and artillery attack.” He said the worst-affected areas were the towns of Barkedou and Sakonadu, about 170 km north of Monrovia on the Guinea border. Chea said thousands of civilians, mainly women and children who had returned to Voinjama after pro-government forces expelled the dissidents from Lofa in June, were reported to have fled into the forest. He also reported rebel attacks in Kolahun, about 310 km north of the Liberian capital. Relief agencies have been busy helping people displaced from Lofa over the past few months. The World Food Programme (WFP) has just distributed food to some 6,000 IDPs in Bellefanai and Gbalatuah, areas in Bong county that are close to the border with Lofa, WFP spokesman Ramin Rafirasme told IRIN. For over one month, relief organisations had been unable to help IDPs in Bellefanai and Gbalatuah because of an official ban on travel to the area, which was lifted last week. Felix Gomez, officer in charge at WFP’s Monrovia office, said the distributions were made on Friday and Saturday. The IDPs were given enough food rations for about two weeks, he told IRIN. “We hope we can continue regular food distributions,” he said. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reported on Monday that some IDPs were in dire need of more aid. MSF said that after walking through the forest for three weeks, about 35,000 people had been settled in camps set up on the Jenne Manna, Bopulu and Gbarnga roads. The total number of people fleeing the fighting was probably higher, according to MSF, which said that unless they received adequate relief their condition would deteriorate rapidly. MSF said that sites it accessed in the last few days had revealed that the number of malnourished children was increasing as families used up their food stocks. There are also cases of respiratory infections, malaria and bloody diarrhoea, MSF reported.