POPULATION: Liberia Refugees Flee Trouble for Trouble

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Katrin Dauenhauer

WASHINGTON, Aug 8 2003 (IPS) - Ongoing fighting in Liberia is aggravating a refugee crisis that threatens the fragile stability in West Africa, humanitarian relief groups say.

The conflict, which has already affected Liberia’s neighbours Sierra Leone, Guinea and C- te d’Ivoire, has left tens of thousands of Liberians uprooted and in dire need of aid, according to Washington-based U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR).

According to USCR and Refugee International (RI), at least 50,000 Liberian refugees are currently living along a 500-km corridor near the Côte d’Ivoire-Liberia border.

They lack both protection and basic humanitarian requirements.

"The main problem at the moment is along the Cavally River. Here, Liberian refugees are overwhelming the Ivorian population by ten to one," Joel Frushone, USCR Africa policy analyst told IPS on Friday.

"Sanitation doesn’t exist, water is very scarce, lack of infrastructure is another problem. UNHCR’s ability to assist is very difficult," added Frushone, who recently returned from Côte d’Ivoire.

Fortunately, said Frushone, the influx of refugees from Liberia has not created resentment among the Ivorian population.

"However, housing is very limited and the ability of the villagers to help refugees to build houses is limited as well. In addition, the rainy season aggravates things," he added.

The refugees fled their homes after fighting erupted between the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), an eastern Liberian rebel group, and Liberian government troops in the port city of Harper in mid-May.

But Côte d’Ivoire is not a safe haven.

USCR reports that Liberian and Ivorian rebel groups seek to control the traffic of goods in the region, exact ‘taxes’ in the form of food rations from refugees, and forcibly recruit refugees into their ranks.

"In my understanding from UNHCR, local officials, refugee leaders, and refugees, the Nicla refugee camp has long been a primary source of illegal recruitment of refugees by the Ivorian government, the Ivorian military and so-called "LIMA" forces – a group of well-armed combatants that fought for the Ivorian government during the Côte d’Ivoire conflict," Frushone told IPS.

"The Nicla camp is highly militarised. Refugees with weapons are moving freely. UNHCR is powerless, as it’s the government’s responsibility to keep the civilian nature of the camp. Many refugees are terrified. In the middle of the night, guns are going off. Refugees are experiencing the same as in Liberia," he added.

"Liberian refugees are recruited by both sides. Children have also been forcefully recruited," confirmed George Kun, McCall-Pierpaoli Fellow at RI.

"UNHCR should engage with the Ivorian government to uphold the civilian character of the camp. The French should also intervene, as they have great leverage over the Ivorians. They should tell them that people who fled war should not be recruited to fight," Kun continued.

The constant flow of refugees is also putting a strain on the shaky political situation in Côte d’Ivoire, say observers.

Last September, fighting erupted between the Patriotic Movement of Côte d’Ivoire (MPCI), an insurgent group backed by Taylor, and the Ivorian military and loyalists to Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo.

In the course of the struggle, Gbagbo took control of the southern half of the country, including the capital Abidjan, while the insurgents gained control of much of the north.

Though no fighting has occurred in Côte d’Ivoire since the implementation of a French-brokered cease-fire in May, the country is still divided and security conditions remain unpredictable and dangerous in most of the west.

Given the lack of security, the United Nations and international humanitarian agencies have been reluctant to travel there, leaving virtually no global aid groups in most of the region.

Besides Côte d’Ivoire, hundreds of Liberians are fleeing weekly to Guinea and Sierra Leone, affecting the stability of those countries too.

"Taylor is not only directly responsible for instability throughout Liberia, he is a prominent instigator in the current instability that plagues Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia’s previously stable neighbour to the east, and past atrocities in Sierra Leone, Liberia’s western neighbour," Frushone said.

That role led the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a U.N.-backed tribunal, to indict Taylor for warm crimes in March for allegedly training and arming insurgents in Sierra Leone.

In light of those charges, USCR recommended that no nation should provide a safe haven to Taylor and that the international community should work to ensure he is handed over to the court.

"Taylor could continue to conduct any armed activity when he is in Nigeria, Ghana, or Libya. If anybody in the international community is serious about bringing the fighting in Liberia to an end, they have to support the Special Court for Sierra Leone and let them do their job," said Frushone.

If Taylor seeks asylum in Nigeria as rumoured, anything short of house arrest should be rejected so that he will be unable to re-establish a system of terror, said RI.

During the past 14 years, violence and human rights violations perpetrated primarily by Taylor and his supporters have left at least 200,000 dead and uprooted more than 1.5 million Liberians, or one-half of the country’s estimated 3 million residents.