Liberia accords on peace, aid signal improvements but 'great needs' remain - UN

With the situation continuing to improve in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, new hope is spreading after the government and two main rebel factions signed a comprehensive peace deal and forged a pact with the United Nations giving humanitarian workers and organizations free and secure access across the war-battered nation.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the situation in Monrovia continues to improve, though great needs created by months of conflict remain. UN humanitarian agencies are steadily increasing the numbers of their staff and quantities of relief supplies in Liberia, and are assessing whether areas outside the capital are now safe enough to conduct humanitarian work.

The agencies are moving swiftly to ramp up their activities just two days after Jacque Paul Klein, the top UN envoy for Liberia, secured a signed agreement by the warring parties stipulating that each side will immediately ensure free and unimpeded access to all territories under their control to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid. The deal also guaranteed the security of international aid workers.

An inter-agency team comprising OCHA, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the Office of the UN Security Coordinator (UNSECOORD) went to the Po-Waterside area to determine whether it would be possible to open a humanitarian corridor into Liberia from Sierra Leone. Similar assessments are planned for the towns of Gbarnga and Tubmanburg later this week as UN agencies try to expand their operations into areas that have been too unsafe for aid deliveries.

Inside Monrovia, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is continuing to distribute the 4,300 tons of food that remained in its warehouses after looting last week. WFP is targeting its distributions to roughly 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) staying at some 110 spontaneous settlements around Monrovia.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), meanwhile, has repatriated more than 200 refugees to Sierra Leone over the past few days. UNHCR received a shipment of enough blankets, shelter materials and kitchen sets for 7,000 people. The agency has also received a shipment of 4,000 litres of fuel, which has been in critically short supply.

For its part, UNICEF delivered shelter materials, high-energy biscuits and recreational items to a shelter for 450 orphans in the city. It is also working with a non-governmental implementing partner, Merlin, to have basic medicines distributed within Monrovia and at least two sites outside the city. UNICEF has also provided the Liberian National Health Service with some 500 gallons of fuel to power generators crucial for the preservation of vaccines.