OCHA Situation Report No. 52
Liberia
2 October 2003


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

General situation

On Tuesday morning (30 September), Mr. John D. Gray was inducted as
vice-president designate of Liberia. The UN was represented by the
humanitarian coordinator a.i and heads of agencies.

Monrovia remains calm though there are reports of unrest up-country.
Reports indicate thousands of people fleeing central Liberia for Guinea
under threat of attack, reportedly by LURD. Unconfirmed reports indicate
that summary executions and rapes are also taking place with 1300 Liberian
refugees having fled from the LURD controlled Lofa county towards the
border towns of Bignamou and Baala. Though the humanitarian community has
undertaken regular missions, including to Tubmanburg, Buchanan, Harper and
Zwedru, securing safe and unhindered access and security for staff and
beneficiaries remains a key challenge.

Wednesday afternoon saw the handover ceremony from ECOMIL to UNMIL at
Roberts International Airport. ECOMIL's troops -- drawn from Benin,
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo therefore
represent the first of up to 15,000 UN troops in Liberia -- to be
reinforced in the coming two weeks by a Bangladeshi battalion under the
terms of UN Security Council resolution 1509 (19 September 2003). However,
early reports indicate that an exchange of fire took place in Paynessville
between LURD and government forces. Between three and five casualties are
believed to have resulted. President Moses Blah of Liberia did not attend
the handover ceremony as originally planned. ECOMIL has intervened to calm
the situation. More detailed information will follow in Sitrep 53.

Humanitarian activities by sector

1.  Food aid

On 29 September, WFP (in conjunction with world vision and adra completed
food distributions to Wilson Centre and Jah Tondo IDP camps in Montserrat.
Just over fifteen thousand received food in Jah Tondo while just over
thirty-one thousand people received food in Wilson Corner. Though WFP
reports no new food deliveries, the de-stuffing of pulses found in
containers after the looting of the port continues, with 181 Mt (9
containers) already in warehouse storage.

WFP indicates that the following distributions were carried out on 29
September 2003:

|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|   IDP camp   |  IP   |  Caseload  |     Qty     |
|              |       |   served   | distributed |
|              |       |            |    (mt)     |
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|Wilson corner |  WVI  |         129|          1.9|
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|  Jah tondo   | ADRA  |         399|          5.9|
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|    Ricks     |  WVI  |       6,865|        101.8|
|  Institute   |       |            |             |
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
| Bensonville  |  WVI  |       1,014|         15.2|
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|    Totota    |  LWF  |       7,083|        107.7|
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|    Salala    | UMCOR |       9,360|        152.6|
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|    Kakata    | ADRA  |       3,391|         50.9|
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|
|    Total     | 28,241|         436|             |
|--------------+-------+------------+-------------|



2.  Health and nutrition

As noted in the week 38 WHO report, (containing data for weeks 33 to 38),
there has been a drastic drop in the incidence of cholera, though health
facilities in Paynessville and west point reported most cases. The decline
results from the intensive chlorination of wells carried out these last
weeks and the movement of IDPs out of central Monrovia to Montserrado
areas. Acute low respiratory infections (exacerbated by the wet season),
however, remain high.

3. Internally displaced persons

Up to 30 September, unhcr indicates that it has transported over 2300
IDPs. Until now, many have been reluctant to move.

Common services

4. United nations joint logistics centre (UNJLC)

Bulletin # 7 with loads of information on air operations, border crossing
and customs, transport infrastructure and logistics coordination is now
available on their website: www.unjlc.org/home/liberia

5. Humanitarian information centre

The HIC is becoming even more central to the humanitarian community both
as a repository of critical information/data but also as an operational
necessity

6. Media/advocacy

The UN media/advocacy working group will meet on Thursday afternoon to
discuss communications strategy and areas of collaboration/cooperation
with all humanitarian actors.


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