Refugee relocation from Lofa continues

The transfer of Sierra Leonean refugees, driven out of camps in northern Liberia by insecurity, continued on Monday with another 552 people transferred from the village of Tarvey (in lower Lofa county) to Sinje camp in neighbouring Grand Cape Mount county. “In the past three weeks, UNHCR has moved more than three thousand Sierra Leoneans to Sinje,” Kris Janowski, UNHCR’s spokesman in Geneva said on Tuesday. The relocation of refugees was suspended on 5 October due to difficult road conditions and dangerous bridges, UNHCR said. The refugees began moving to Tarvey late in August after armed attacks on villages around Kolahun, in northern Lofa County, forced aid workers to pull out of the area. Most made the 100 km journey on foot. “There are still nine thousand Sierra Leoneans in Tarvey, although arrivals from Kolahun have stopped,” Janowski said. Meanwhile, UNHCR is waiting for permission from Liberian authorities to take out by road around 200 ill and elderly refugees who are stranded in Kolahun. The military continue to ban humanitarian agencies from using roads in the area and relief aid is brought to this remaining group by MSF and UNHCR by helicopter. “UNHCR is urgently working to get approval for the move,” Janowski said. “The situation in northern Liberia is still unstable. The army has commandeered more UNHCR vehicles last week from our office in Vahun.”