UN launches road rehabilitation project in Liberian capital

The top United Nations envoy for Liberia has launched a $220,000 road rehabilitation project for the capital Monrovia, part of a project by the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to quickly bring infrastructural improvements to the country and give people employment opportunities.

Jacques Paul Klein, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Liberia, said the poor state of the country's road network was "an appalling problem of waste, danger and death," and that their improvement was "crucial to rebuilding Liberia's national economy."

"The people of Liberia have lived for too long on promises and it is now time to deliver," Mr. Klein said.

Also in Liberia, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said recent fighting in the central part of the country has forced some 6,000 people to flee to Saclepea, one of the larger towns in Nimba County. The agency said it was attempting to get supplies to them.