UN team arrives in Liberia to jump-start relief efforts

A senior United Nations relief official led an 11-person team into the Liberian capital Monrovia today to accelerate efforts to get desperately needed food and clean water to thousands of people crowding the capital's streets.

Delivering food to needy people is the top humanitarian priority, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it hoped to immediately resume full-scale distribution in the capital once access to its warehouse has been granted by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels who control it.

Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie plans to meet with UN national staff and humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to discuss the most effective ways to proceed with relief operations now that UN international staff have returned. She also plans visiting a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that 10 international staff had arrived in Monrovia, including three specialists in child protection. UNICEF said high-energy biscuits and oral rehydration salts would be arriving by plane Thursday or Friday. UNICEF said its main priority was the protection of children and flagged the dire situation of street children in Monrovia who had no access to food or water.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is flying in supplies, including food and equipment, for re-stocking their office in Monrovia. Tomorrow it plans to fly in staff and fuel. On Friday a UNHCR ship carrying food supplies for some 7,000 people will arrive. That ship is expected to ferry Sierra Leonean refugees back to Freetown.

On the peacekeeping front, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) flew in no soldiers or equipment to Monrovia because of bad weather in the Liberian capital. Jacques Paul Klein, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Liberia, is scheduled to leave later today for the region.