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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

LIBERIA: ICRC sends first aid convoy to Zwedru

ABIDJAN, 25 November 2003 (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday it had sent a truck convoy from the capital Monrovia to Zwedru near the eastern border with Cote d'Ivoire with supplies to help resettle people returning to their homes nearby following the end of Liberia's civil war.

This is the first time relief agencies have attempted to supply Zwedru overland from Monrovia, 320 km away. Until now, they have accessed the rebel-held town from Cote d'Ivoire.

The ICRC said in a statement that its convoy of 10 trucks left Monrovia on Tuesday with 36 tonnes of supplies to help 1,000 families return to their homes in and around Zwedru following a peace agreement in August that ended 14 years of civil war.

The supplies included cooking utensils, plastic bucket, sleeping mats, soap and clothing as well as vegetable seeds and farm tools such as cutlasses, hoes, shovels, rakes and watering cans.

Zwedru is the headquarters town of Grand Geddeh county. Many civilians there fled into the bush or sought refuge in Cote d'Ivoire when fighters of the rebel Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) drove government forces out of the district earlier this year.

Attempts by relief agencies to send supplies into Zwedru from Cote d'Ivoire have been hampered by poor security on the Ivorian side of the border.

The ICRC recently opened a sub-delegation office in Zwedru and another in Voinjama, a town in northwestern Liberia near the border with Guinea which is controlled by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement.

Themes: (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs

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