UN calls for $69m Liberian aid package

The UN has launched a $69 million emergency aid appeal for war-torn Liberia – and so alleviate the suffering of nearly one million refugees.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other UN officials yesterday urged world governments to seize the opportunity to help end the "unnecessary suffering" of Liberian citizens and to "let them know they are not alone in the quest for development and peace".

With the request for aid underway in New York, the rollout of peacekeeping troops continued on the ground in Liberia as the UN Mission in Sierra Leone airlifted 112 more Nigerian troops and other equipment - including three armoured personnel carriers, two land rovers, three tons of ammunition and one fuel tanker - to the capital Monrovia. They join 184 troops who arrived Monday and 152 more that hit the ground yesterday.

The build-up is expected to continue as the Economic Community of West African States leads the efforts to enforce a ceasefire and clear the way for the distribution of food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by fighting between forces loyal to President Charles Taylor and rebel factions, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy and the Movement for Democracy and Elections in Liberia.

The revised appeal by UN humanitarian agencies and their non-governmental partners seeks $22 million to buy food, $9 million to care for the staggering number of homeless and refugees - estimated to be about 450,000 in Monrovia alone - and $8.5 million for urgent to meet health care needs.

The West African country of about 3.2 million people has been gripped by war on and off for 14 years. An estimated 80% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Since June, nearly non-stop fighting between Liberian rebels and government forces has devastated Monrovia.

Countless civilians have been killed or wounded and thousands of others have streamed into the capital seeking refuge from the fighting, the UN said.

Many have been living in the streets with little if any access to clean water, sanitation and food. UN agencies now say the city is in the grips of a cholera epidemic.

The UN's earlier appeal for Liberia, launched in November 2002, raised only about a fifth of the $42 million requested, officials have said.

(GMcG)