More displacement adds to IDPs’ suffering, MSF says

Fighting last week between pro- and anti-government forces in northwestern Liberia has caused further population displacement, according to Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), which said its expatriate staff and those of other humanitarian organisations had been evacuated from a nearby IDP camp.

The fighting took place in Kongbo and Amtel in Gbarpolu County. The county is immediately south of Lofa, where the clashes between armed dissidents and forces loyal to the government of President Charles Taylor had hitherto been concentrated. Kongbo and Amtel are about one hour’s drive from Jennemana, a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) which MSF built in the neighbouring county of Cape Mount. The relief organisation said on Friday that 2,500 persons who had fled the attacks were still hiding in the bush and that the area, which now has 8,000 IDPs, was very unstable.

MSF, which provides medical and nutritional services for Jennemana - as well as two other IDP camps in Liberia - said the insecurity had made it difficult to provide much needed humanitarian aid. It said it was worried about the health and safety of the people in the area, who were already weak. Some of the IDPs had had to walk two days before reaching Jennemana, where they received food and health care.

During a visit north of Jennemana Camp, an MSF team found malnutrition and acute malnutrition rates of 49 percent and 6 percent respectively, as well as many cases of bloody diarrhoea.