In Liberia: 'Last Minute' Looters Mar Prospects as Peacekeepers and Aid Workers Slowly Gain Ground

Baltimore, September 10, 2003 — Forces behind the recent chaos still hold sway in much of Liberia as aid workers and peacekeepers make progress in the capital city and mount convoys into the countryside. In the capital, Monrovia, relief goods from Lutheran World Relief have helped meet immediate needs of tens of thousands of civilians in recent weeks and Lutheran World Federation Liberia staff there are on the frontlines of current efforts to re-establish camps near the capital and assess needs in the hinterland.

A report reaching LWR today from a clinic in a key aid corridor north of Monrovia is typical of the continuing see-saw between lawless behavior and humanitarian efforts. "Fighting broke out between LURD [a rebel group] and government militia [remnants of ex-president Charles Taylor's forces] in Kakata yesterday," reported Dr. Emmanuel Sandoe, medical director of Phebe Hospital, a church-related facility. "The militia took advantage of this and entered our operation area in Salala and looted everything in the hospital. The patients and employees are in disarray. Some have fled for their lives." Sandoe had just completed eight major surgeries at the facility in the hours before the incident.

LWF is managing one camp at Salala and another at Jahtondo. People trickling back to such camps from Monrovia are given assistance if they stay (to see photo visit ). LWF is clearing land where displaced families can build, putting up transit shelters for new arrivals and erecting simple dwellings for vulnerable people like the elderly and single mothers.

In July and August, $1.3 million worth of aid that arrived from LWR during the fighting reached 90,000 people in and around Monrovia. Clothing, bedding, health kits, school kits, soap and medical supplies went to 40 places of refuge - schools, churches and clinics - across the capital city, along with emergency rations from another agency in Action by Churches Together, the emergency alliance that includes LWR and LWF.

Meanwhile, in the countryside, a recurring pattern since the mid-August ceasefire is that militia forces fire off their weapons to frighten local civilians in an area they would like to loot. LWF Liberia representative Charles Pitchford calls these "last minute looting opportunities" because they are being staged before the arrival of troops from the West African peacekeeping force. Looting is how unpaid fighters survive, he notes.

In the case of Salala alone, 60,000 people fled gunfire around rural camps and communities last week to seek safer ground there.

All parties to the recent peace accord have agreed to permit access for humanitarian agencies across the country, but most who travel beyond Monrovia must still be coordinated with local commanders.

United Nations peacekeeping troops, sent by Liberia's West African neighbors, are gradually helping to restore order as they venture beyond Monrovia, but they have minimal transportation and communication capacity at their disposal, LWF reports.

Much work continues in Monrovia itself. ACT member organizations there are providing psycho-social care to some of the many traumatized residents, for example, and have been emptying the latrines at a football stadium that served as shelter for tens of thousands during the past three months.

Survivors of the three recent sieges of Monrovia speak of their ordeals as World War 1, WW2 and WW3 because the main attacks on the city began on June 1, July 2, and August 3, respectively.