ACF mission highlights plight of IDPs within Lofa

Action against Hunger (ACF-French acronym) said on Wednesday it was worried about the many civilians caught in the fighting in Lofa county, northern Liberia. About 40,000 people have fled Lofa as a result of fighting since April between government forces and dissidents. Information on the fighting has been sketchy but on Wednesday, Radio France Internationale reported the government as saying 15 rebels had been killed on 20-21 July while 25 others died in an ambush by government forces two weeks ago. The county has been inaccessible to humanitarian workers. However, the head of ACF’s Liberia mission, Florence Descacq, and ACF volunteer Karine Michotte went recently to Zorzor, eastern Lofa, with permits from the government and found that thousands of people were surviving in very unsafe conditions, without any help, in villages and forests, ACF said. They also found that the tension in the zone was extremely high and the people there lived in fear. “Many have been victims of abuses perpetrated by combatants,” ACF said. Lofa is traditionally Liberia’s rice bowl, but its people have few resources and have not been able to reap their rice harvests. “It is urgent and primordial for their survival that they be guaranteed protection and given assistance,” ACF said.