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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

LIBERIA: Thousands trapped without medical care, MSF says

ABIDJAN, 11 March 2003 (IRIN) - The volatile situation in eastern Liberia, near the border with Cote d'Ivoire, has trapped thousands of civilians who are now without medical care, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported on Tuesday.

MSF said it had evacuated staff from the area. "Our teams were forced to leave the area because it was too dangerous to stay," it explained. "We are very worried now about the situation of the people in the region, both local population and the refugees.

"Thousands of innocent people remain trapped in an extremely violent and volatile situation, cut off from medical care of any kind."

Over the past days, MSF said, clashes between government forces and rebel fighters in Grand Gedeh district on the border with Cote d'Ivoire had forced thousands of people to flee and obliged MSF to evacuate its staff. Kostas Moschochoritis, MSF Operational Coordinator for West Africa in Brussels, said that since January, MSF teams had been working in Toe Town, the epicentre of the recent fighting in Grand Gedeh, and the surrounding villages.

"There were tens of thousands of refugees and returnees pouring into the country, fleeing the fighting in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire," he added. "In Toe Town we had been assisting them with medical consultations, water and sanitation in the transit camp and with mobile clinics in the surrounding villages where the majority of them had found temporary refuge."

According to MSF, since 28 February- 1 March, the fighting had caused Liberians, Ivorians, Beninese, Burkinabes, Malians and Senegalese to seek refuge in the surrounding villages while many more had resorted to hiding in the bush. Access to them was now impossible due to the insecurity.

For further information go to www.msf.org

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition

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