Liberia & Sierra Leone
People streaming from Liberia to Sierra Leone

afrol News, 1 March - More than 10,000 Liberian refugees have arrived in Sierra Leone since 8 February, fleeing renewed fighting in Liberia. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has been relocating the new arrivals from the border town of Jendema to camps further inside Sierra Leone. So far, 2,029 refugees have been relocated, and convoys continue daily, UNHCR says.

On 8 February, the Liberian President Charles Taylor declared a state of emergency. The nearly three-year-old conflict with rebels had thus spread from the north of the country to the doorstep of the capital, Monrovia. While the increased field of action of the Liberian rebels daily creates new displaced, the harsh emergency laws also threaten the remnants of a political opposition in the country. 

The Liberian government's refugee agency (LRRRC) is carrying out a global survey on the number of persons displaced by the fighting. Initial UN estimates last week puts their number at 50,000 to 60,000. The government, however, put the figure into the hundreds of thousands.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leonean refugees continue to return from Liberia on their own and aboard UNHCR convoys from the Sinje camps and camps around Monrovia. "Over 3,200 have returned on convoys, while another 1,000 have come back to Sierra Leone on their own," UNHCR spokesperson Kris Janowski said at a press conference in Geneva today.

In all, more than 6,300 refugees and returnees have been relocated from the border area to camps, settlement sites or their home areas inside Sierra Leone. To help ease the pressures on Jendema town, we are stepping up relocation convoys from Jendema, alternating between return convoys from Monrovia and relocation movements due to the limited trucking capacity available on the ground.

UNHCR says over 60,000 Sierra Leonean refugees who fled a vicious 10-year civil war in their country are currently in Liberia, including 40,000 who are sheltered in six camps. Among these are 7,000 new refugees who were previously living in Lofa and Gbarpolu Counties and who recently moved to the camps because of the fighting.

Some Liberians however are reported to have packed their belongings and boarded buses and taxis for neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, where many have relatives. This movement, however, remains on a small scale and concerns only those who can afford the cost of the journey, according to refugee agency officials.

UNHCR in Côte d'Ivoire one week ago reported the entry of 322 Liberian nationals in the Danane area near the Liberian border between 11 and 20 February - a number that was on the increase. Many of the newcomers say fears of being recruited into military service by the government led them to flee, and more than half of those interviewed by UNHCR indicated they would go onto Ghana.

Sources: Based on UNHCR and afrol archives