• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

LIBERIA: UN launches new $69 million aid appeal

ABIDJAN, 6 August 2003 (IRIN) - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for US $69.1 million to help relaunch relief operations in Liberia, where a West African force moved in this week to try and enforce a ceasefire between government and rebel forces.

The joint appeal by all UN agencies operating in the war-torn West African country and their non-governmental partners was aimed at meeting the immediate needs of its three million population for the rest of this year.

Launching the appeal in New York, Jacques Klein, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Liberia, said: "This is a decisive moment for the people of Liberia. Prolonged hostilities and misrule have kept the country on a ruinous path of death, destruction and deferred development."

"An accute humanitarian crisis is now affecting some one million men, women and children," he added.

The United Nations has raised the total funds sought in its Consolidated Appeal for Liberia to $69.1 million from $42.7 million in its original appeal in November last year. Donations were only raised to cover 22 percent of the non-food component of that.

Klein said the UN would use money sought to "reduce malnutrition, restore supplies of clean water, provide basic shelter and health care, stem the spread of lethal diseases such as cholera and protect fundamental human rights."

The appeal document said the most urgent need was to provide for about 450,000 displaced people living under horrific conditions in the capital, Monrovia, which has been under attack from rebel forces since early June.

It said that as a result of intense fighting in and around the city over the past two months, the number of people requiring emergency assistance there had almost doubled.

The humanitarian situation in the interior of Liberia, most of which is now controlled by two rebel movements, is unknown.

Liberia has been in a state of civil war almost for most of the past 14 years. Klein said: "Without urgent action, more lives will be lost.

The appeal document warned that the ability of relief agencies to actually deliver the aid now being sought would depend on an end to the fighting.

"It will be difficult to carry out even the basic life saving projects under the first phase without periodic pauses in the hostilities," it said.

Although all projects outlined in the original appeal remain valid, new ones have been added, including an expanded water trucking operation and reintegration of former child combatants.

UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, estimates that thousands of child soldiers are employed by all three warring parties, some of them as young as nine.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Other

[ENDS]

The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All graphics and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the express permission of the original owner. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003