Liberia Violence Highlights Urgent Need for Funding to Safeguard Peace

Posted: 4 November 2004

Riots in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, over the weekend have left 16 people dead and 200 wounded. The violence—the worst since the country's civil war ended last year—appears to have been triggered by a land dispute. It started on Oct. 28 and quickly escalated into widespread rioting.

Oxfam's team is safe but is concerned about the implications of this flare-up in fighting. It comes at a time when the United Nations is concluding its disarmament program for ex-combatants. Some 95,000 people have now been demobilized, but there is little donor money left for education and vocational training projects to give ex-fighters an alternative to war or to reintegrate them into their communities.

"The situation here is still very volatile," said Jo Hutton, Oxfam's Country Program Manager in Liberia. "You have gangs of restless youths loitering around Monrovia with nothing to do and no prospects for the future. It's a tinderbox waiting for a spark."

Since the end of the civil war in August 2003, Liberia has been patrolled by what is currently the world's largest United Nations peacekeeping force, UNMIL, which has been responsible since April for disarming the former fighters. But the money is fast running out.

Liberia's transitional president, Gyude Bryant, has called for an extra $44 million to pay for education and skills training for the former fighters and to reintegrate them into their war-devastated communities. It is also critical that the funding materializes to help hundreds of thousands of Liberian refugees and internally displaced people return home. Resettlement of internally displaced people from their camps was due to start Nov. 1 but has been postponed because of the current instability.

"This latest violence shows the risk of the international community taking its eye off the ball in Liberia," Ms. Hutton said. "The international community is spending huge amounts of money keeping the peace-keepers in Liberia, but they're stopping short when it comes to funding the programs that could create a lasting peace in this country. It's a short-sighted approach.

"The long-suffering families we work with in the camps deserve more than this," she added. "They've been on the run for years now. It's time they were able to go home and rebuild their lives."

Oxfam has been working in Liberia since 1995, although activities were interrupted for several months by fighting in 1996. Oxfam responds to the needs of local communities, IDPs (internally displaced persons), and refugees. Our work is concentrated in three main camps—Jah Tondo, Wilson and Sewegbe—in Montserrado County near Monrovia. Oxfam provides clean water, sanitation and hygiene awareness training to around 40,000 internally displaced people.