UNHCR NEEDS $60 MILLION FOR LIBERIA

1 March 1996

Press Release
REF/1133

UNHCR NEEDS $60 MILLION FOR LIBERIA

19960301 GENEVA, 1 March (UNHCR) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) made an urgent appeal today for $60 million for its voluntary repatriation programme in Liberia for 18 months.

The appeal coincided with the arrival in Abidjan of High Commissioner Sadako Ogata for a week-long visit to Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea, home to over 1 million Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees.

Mrs. Ogata is expected to express gratitude to the Governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea for hosting the refugees for almost six years. She also will visit refugee settlements in the two countries.

The UNHCR needs $39 million this year and another $21 million in the first half of 1997 to cover the cost of transportation, provision of food, plastic sheeting, jerry cans and tools and livelihood projects.

Since the signing of a peace agreement in August 1995, Liberian authorities and relief agencies said about 30,000 Liberian refugees have returned spontaneously to Liberia from border areas of Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea. Most of the returnees arrived in the past two months.

However, the lack of funds and sporadic clashes have prevented the UNHCR from extending relief to the returnees. Assistance to them has been given on an ad hoc basis in coordination with other United Nations and relief agencies.

The willingness of large numbers of refugees to repatriate has prompted the UNHCR to seek funds now; otherwise it will be unprepared if the return movement gathers momentum. The UNHCR needs to provide non-food items and organize integration programmes in areas where spontaneous returns have taken place.

The UNHCR helps 305,800 Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire, 410,000 in Guinea, 15,000 in Ghana, 4,000 in Nigeria and 4,700 in Sierra Leone. Another 1 million Liberians are displaced within Liberia following the civil war that erupted in the nation of 2.5 million in December 1989 and left more than 150,000 dead.

Organized repatriation from the asylum countries would depend on the deployment of west African peace-keepers throughout Liberia, progress in

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disarmament and demobilization of troops and extension of the central government throughout the country.

Today's appeal includes $16.9 million for transportation and logistics; $10 million for programme delivery costs; $1 million for food; $3 million for domestic needs such as blankets, plastic sheeting and tools; $6 million for crop production; $3.5 million for shelter; $2.8 million for health; $1 million for community services; $1 million for income generation.

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