IOM to conduct IDP assessment

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has dispatched an assessment team to Liberia to review the situation of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), the IOM reported on Friday. The assessment team, IOM said, was invited by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is funded by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID). "The mission will assess the IDP population in terms of their numbers, needs and vulnerability, and will look at the likely cost of an assistance programme. It will also look at potential IDP camp management and vocational skills training projects," IOM said. The majority of the 130,000 displaced Liberians, IOM said, were located in the greater Monrovia area and were displaced by fighting between Liberian government Forces and the rebel group known as Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). "There are also some 10,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in camps in the Monrovia area [and] an estimated further 5,000 refugees, many of them displaced former residents of the Sinje refugee camp, west of the capital, Monrovia," IOM said. This followed an attack by rebels on 20 June.