Aid groups to curtail Liberian relief efforts

Christian Century, June 19, 1996

A dozen major religious and secular relief agencies, frustrated by the massive looting of aid material in Liberia, have announced they will "severely limit" their humanitarian work in the war-torn West African nation. At least one of those organizations also joined an appeal to the U.S. government to take the lead in creating a United Nations peacekeeping force for war-torn Liberia.

The decision to cut back aid was triggered by the recent eruption of savage fighting in the country. "The acts of the warlords have become so outrageous that we can't gear up again to help the country unless they agree to a cease-fire and guarantee access and security to humanitarian aid workers," said Kathryn Wolford, executive director of Lutheran World Relief.

Wolford said the humanitarian agencies "have tried everything, from negotiating with the warlords to replacing the equipment." She noted that the agencies, in addition to being frustrated, are fearful that their stolen resources, especially the vehicles, are being used to prolong the fighting and enhance the profits of the warlords. "You have to ask if you're not just feeding the conflict," Wolford commented. At an all-day meeting May 28 at the Geneva offices of the Lutheran World Federation, 12 U.S. and overseas aid agencies agreed to provide only "targeted, minimal, life-saving interventions" in Liberia and end other development work there.

In addition to the LWF, agencies signing the agreement to limit aid included the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam and World Vision International. The decision to curtail operations means that major donor governments and the UN will not be able to work through the humanitarian agencies as they have for the past several years.

Earlier in the month, relief, development and humanitarian groups organized by InterAction, a Washington-based umbrella agency that includes more than 150 such organizations, issued a statement calling on the U.S. government to recommend to other members of the UN Security Council "the formation of a UN peacekeeping force, which would be sent to Liberia as soon as possible." The May 20 statement said the goal of the peacekeepers would be to restore security so that humanitarian assistance can be resumed, to demobilize the troops of the feuding warlords and to put in place a political process "which will lead to the free and fair election of a government of national unity." A small contingent of peacekeeping troops from West African nations is in Liberia but has been unable to stop the fighting (and reportedly have themselves taken part in the looting).

According to the LWF, agencies working in Liberia, including the UN, have lost more than 400 vehicles and other equipment and resources worth $35 million since the renewed fighting. The LWF's World Services headquarters in Monrovia was raided nine times on Easter Sunday April 7, the day after fighting between the Liberian warlords resumed. It has lost 27 motorbikes and more than 30 trucks, buses and other vehicles.

Rich Moseanko, a senior relief associate for the evangelical relief agency World Vision International, said the decision to sharply reduce but not totally end relief work in Liberia was something of a compromise. "You can't bring humanitarian aid to a complete stop," Moseanko said. "The urgent needs there will be attended to. And none of the groups want to be accused of using food as a weapon."

In a related story, Bishop Ronald Diggs, the former leader of the Lutheran Church in Liberia whose disappearance in April raised fears for his life, has been evacuated to safety in Senegal by U.S. marines. The LWF said in a May 20 news report that Bishop Diggs, who arrived in Senegal after three weeks in hiding, had told LWF officials that he was physically well but morally "downcast."