President says 35,000 IDPs in Lofa County

At least 35,000 people have fled their homes in Liberia’s upper Lofa Country after almost three weeks of fighting between government and dissident forces, AFP reported quoting President Charles Taylor. He said Sierra Leonean refugees were among the displaced. The agency quoted Defence Minister Daniel Chea as saying the displaced had been regrouped in the northern towns of Kolahun and Foya, in Lofa. AFP also quoted a witness, who reached Monrovia, as saying the IDPs had been placed under “protective military guard”. Medecins Sans Frontieres in Monrovia, the last NGO to work in the area, told IRIN on Wednesday it could not confirm the government’s IDP figure because the agency had suspended work in Lofa on 8 July, when the fighting broke out. Neither the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) nor the Ministry of Defence could be contacted for comment.