ARC Launches Appeal for Humanitarian Emergency in Liberia

American Refugee Committee
Friday, 11 May 2001

The American Refugee Committee has launched an emergency appeal for money to help tens of thousands of people in northern Liberia who have been forced by fighting to flee for their lives.

Desperate Liberians from Lofa County are moving south by foot to locations where they lack clean water, sanitation, shelter, medical care and food. More than 5,000 have gathered at an ill-equipped camp at an old agricultural compound in central Bong County.

"There is no adequate water system, the displaced persons are taking water from a nearby swamp," ARC Liberia Country Director Shaun Skelton reports. "There is no sanitation at all, not even pit latrines. Some corn meal and oil has been distributed by the World Food Program, but it is insufficient."

More than 60,000 people have been uprooted by recent fighting between government and dissident forces on the border between Guinea and Liberia, according to government sources. Some 700 to 1,000 people are arriving at the Bong County camp each day. About 12,000 others are waiting at a bridge between Lofa and Bong counties, with the Liberian Army strictly controlling how many can escape to safety each day.

ARC is spearheading an effort to provide essential supplies and equipment to the Bong County camp. These include tarpaulins, chlorine, plastic water containers, pit latrines and bathing rooms, food, charcoal and firewood, emergency vaccinations, primary health units and fuel for trucks.

Financial assistance would also be used to help relocate people who are still trapped in upper Lofa County and vulnerable to rebel attacks.

The help is especially vital in the wake of the decision by the UN Security Council this week to impose sanctions on Liberia for its support of rebels in Sierra Leone, ARC President and CEO Anthony Kozlowski said. "Donor governments have drastically curtailed their development and humanitarian aid to Liberia in recent years," he noted. "But this is hurting innocent victims of the country's continuing violence."

For more information, or to contact American Refugee Committee, see their website at: www.archq.org