UN refugee agency begins relocating displaced Liberians
The United Nations refugee agency and other humanitarian organizations today began a three-day operation to move displaced Liberians to new camps from a stadium that once housed 47,000 people uprooted by fighting around Monrovia, the capital.
In all the joint effort aims to relocate some 7,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from SKD stadium, 15 kilometres east of Monrovia, to six official IDP camps in the Montserrado area on the outskirts of the capital.
About 1,500 people were scheduled to be moved on the first day, as soldiers from the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) provided security escort for the operation that also involved agencies like the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the Liberian Refugees Repatriation and Resettlement Commission and several non-governmental organizations.
UNHCR provided 15 trucks for transport, and distributed mats, blankets, kitchen sets and other relief items. The new arrivals will live in temporary shelters for up to a week before they are given construction materials to build their own huts in the camps.
The relocation exercise is expected to last for three days, ending on Monday. Another 4,000 people remaining in the stadium are believed to be local residents who will be assisted back to their homes.
The current operation is part of a collaborative effort to decongest public buildings and schools around Monrovia after tens of thousands of people converged on the capital amid fighting in June between government and rebel forces before a ceasefire in August put an end to nearly a decade and a half of civil war in the West African country, one of the world’s poorest nations.
In another attempt to return Liberia to normalcy, more than 8,500 former combatants have surrendered their weapons since the start of a disarmament and demobilization campaign on 7 December. The initiative was suspended on Wednesday for the holiday season, and will resume on 20 January. Another 3,000 ex-fighters have registered for the campaign, bringing the total number of disarmed soldiers to 11,585, more than one-quarter of the estimated 40,000 ex-combatants targeted.