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Famine Poses a New Threat - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum Famine Poses a New Threat
By Abdullah Dukuly
Inter Press Service
January 8, 2004
Spared from death by the bullets, thousands of Liberian war survivors face a new threat: famine. Unless something is done urgently, people will start dying of hunger soon, warn aid workers.
"The main problem is the shortage of food and medicine. People travel for miles from the displaced camp to look for food," said Edward Farkollie of the Catholic Relief Service in central Liberia. Part of the problem, a missionary told IPS Tuesday, is the constant harassment and intimidation of civilians by marauding rebels in the north and south-east of the country. Heavily drugged-addicted armed men loot and vandalise villages, making it difficult for the government and aid organisations to distribute food, he said.
More than half of Liberia's 3.5 million people are the forgotten victims of the 14-year civil war, aid agencies say. To further compound the problem, a quarter of Liberia's population remains clustered around displaced camps near the capital, Monrovia. Thousands others cannot be located, having vanished during the war, well-placed sources told IPS. Most of the displaced had abandoned their farmlands in search of security.
Likewise, the condition of the over 50,000 displaced people in Liberia's northern town of Sacclepea is appalling, said their leader, Joseph Targbeh. Many live on wild fruits. "People trek several miles to buy food for their families," he said. At least three persons die each day from malaria, dehydration and other infectious diseases, Targbeh told a private radio station in Monrovia.
According to various estimates, 60 percent of the displaced are women who bear the greatest burden of the war. Beatrice Johnson, 65, is a former schoolteacher in Liberia's Western Cape Mount County. Along with her 19 dependents, she fled the carnage of her country's war into neighbouring Sierra Leone in 1990. They were forced back into Liberia in a displaced camp in the western town of Tiennii in 1999 when Sierra Leone launched a counter offensive to dislodge Liberian rebels who had invaded their country.
When Tiennii came under attack, they moved to the western provincial city of Tubmanburg and now find themselves at the John Tondo Displaced Camp, Monrovia's western outskirts. Her mother, husband and two children went missing during their shuttles. Sitting in their make-shift hut, Johnson worries about the harsh reality of life she is faced with. "You know, starvation kills more than bullets. I'm wondering what to do now to make ends meet. My family has not had a decent meal since the New Year day," she told IPS in a pathetic voice.
Samuel Kekura, 85, a skinny and well-spoken former mine worker, shares a small thatched hut with his 17 dependents, including his wife, Jenevive, 61. She is his only hope as she fetches food for the family and manages the little ration supplied by the World Food Programme (WFP). His retirement house -- built in his Bong Mines home when he worked with the Bong Mining Company 30 years ago -- was demolished by war. Chatting with IPS, Kekura wonders whether he will ever return alive to Bong. "Will I die and be buried in a strange place?" he asked. "My body is wasting here," he said, "while my soul is in my home."
Like Kekura, the displaced people have no source of income and live at the mercy of relief organisations. "The much-hated bulgur wheat is the only food supplied monthly by WFP. This is highly inadequate," said Kekura. Rice is Liberia's staple food. Most of the war survivors -- once self-sufficient and self-reliant through farming and other ventures -- are today languishing in displaced centres under the worst form of human degradation, a relief worker told IPS. They hope to return home one day to start a new life when the guns would have been taken away from the fighters.
"The key to the wishes and aspirations of the displaced people," said the Rev. Kortu Brown "is the disarmament and demobilisation of the estimated 40,000 combatants in the country". Brown is the head of Concern Christian Community, a leading non-government organization, in Liberia. He said, "The displaced people will have every reason to smile as the UN peacekeepers make significant strides in the country's peace process".
In less than two weeks, the peacekeepers have deployed in three major rebel strongholds in the west, central and southeast of the country. The latest deployment has triggered discussions among the displaced people about possible plans to return to their villages and towns.
Abou Moussa, UN deputy special envoy in Liberia, said UN would advise aid workers to move into the country, begin massive relief operations and rehabilitate the infrastructure as soon as UNMIL (United Nations Military Mission in Liberia) complete the deployment of peacekeepers nationwide. "But for now, most parts of the country are still dangerous for people to return home as the country remains unsafe," a UN officials told IPS. Brown says he is "overly optimistic" about peace in the New Year. "I believe that with the efforts of the international community, the war will end soon."
Agriculture Minister George F. Karmee told IPS Monday that Liberia's transitional government is planning to revamp the country's agricultural sector. "We intend to provide agricultural tools and seedlings to our farmers to begin their farming activities and boost the nation's agricultural programme," he said.
An estimated 400,000 Liberians fled into neighbouring countries in the 1990s when former rebel leader-turned President Charles Taylor -- the architect of the Liberian war now in exile in Nigeria -- led an insurgency from neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire. James Fromayan, a pro-democracy and human rights advocate, said Taylor's stepping down from power late last year "gives us hope that we will begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel".
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