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afrol News, 14 January - The UN refugee agency UNHCR is planning to organise an emergency repatriation operation for an estimated 1,000 Liberian refugees trapped in the war-ravaged western parts of Côte d'Ivoire. The fighting has caused the regional refugee streams to turn, with Ivorians now increasingly entering Liberia to seek refuge. While around 25,000 Liberians left for Côte d'Ivoire, fleeing the fighting between the LURD rebels and government troops last year, now the tides have turned. In Liberia, LURD's operations are now concentrated to Lofa county, far away from the Ivorian border. In Côte d'Ivoire, on the other hand, fighting has erupted close to the border and Liberian refugees have been targeted by government loyalists for months. The UNHCR today announced it is also planning to set up new camps for the recent Ivorian influx into Liberia. Several thousand Liberian refugees have returned to Liberia during the last weeks, and more are expected. Also Ivorians have started arriving. Earlier today, the UN refugee agency had welcomed the signing of a cease-fire agreement in Lomé between the two western Ivorian rebel movements and the loyalist forces. "However, the situation remains tense in south-western Côte d'Ivoire, where rebels captured the town of Grabo, near Tabou, last week," the agency warns. More than 6,000 Liberian refugees – out of an estimated 20,000 refugees still in the area – had already fled back into Liberia, while some 1,000 remain stranded in two compounds in Tabou, including one housing the offices of UNHCR and Catholic aid organisation CARITAS, UNHCR spokesperson Delphine Marie said in Geneva today. The local population had so far prevented refugees in the UNHCR/CARITAS compound from leaving, suspecting them of involvement with the rebels. "If we die, you will die with us," they told the refugees. Four Liberian refugees had even been beaten up on Sunday. - UNHCR is appealing to the local population and young loyalists manning numerous checkpoints in the region to stop harassing refugees and let those who want to leave Côte d'Ivoire depart, Ms Marie said. Checkpoints had made any movement nearly impossible for the refugees. The UN agency was currently making plans to help the stranded refugees return to Liberia as an emergency measure, Ms Marie informed. This could start as soon as Wednesday, pending talks with local officials and traditional leaders. The planned emergency repatriation is UNHCR's last resort after failed attempts to evacuate refugees from conflict-ridden western Côte d'Ivoire, the agency says. The agency was to mobilise local mini-buses to transport the refugees to the border, and use canoes to transport them across the Cavaly River into Liberia. A UNHCR ferry that had previously been used to transport returnees across the river was blown up in November by security forces fearing that Liberian rebels would use it to enter Côte d'Ivoire. Since fighting started in the west of the country on 19 November, refugees have increasingly been accused of taking part in rebel activity. The war has provoked a change of attitude towards refugees in Côte d'Ivoire, which had "always been known for its hospitality to refugees, who were allowed to live among the local population," Ms Marie says. Recent requests made to the government for a new site to transfer vulnerable Liberian refugees from the conflict zones have been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, in eastern Liberia, a total of 62,000 new arrivals had been recorded since rebel fighting spread to western Côte d'Ivoire in mid-November. These include 38,000 Liberians - not necessarily all registered refugees - 21,000 Ivorians and 3,000 people of other nationalities. Many of them were hosted in four transit centres, but most of the Ivorians had been living in villages near the border. UNHCR was requesting permission from the local authorities to set up camps for the Ivorian refugees. At the same time, the agency is transporting the returning Liberians back to their home areas where possible, mainly to Bong and Nimba counties, where relative peace prevails. "Those who cannot go home due to the continuing internal conflict will be assisted in a camp for internally displaced persons in Totota, south of Gbarnga, in Bong county," UNHCR informed. Sources: Based on UNHCR and afrol archives
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