Bahn, Liberia — A makeshift gate made of rope and rags hangs across the dirt road leading into Bahn Refugee Camp in Liberia. Inside, children play soccer as their parents cook beside their tarpaulin shelters. Tree stumps dot the recently cleared landscape.
Mathew Zou, a 39-year-old teacher, recently walked two days to the Bahn camp from neighboring Cote d'Ivoire with his 11 family members. He said although he did not witness fighting back home it was close.
"I heard the sound of shooting," he said. "Everybody was just running to Liberia and the [New Forces] fighters were passing us with guns."
Oldma Massa Zaweah, a Liberian, said she plans to visit the Bahn camp. She said when she was a refugee in Cote d'Ivoire in the 1990s Ivorian families helped her and now she wants to try to find them.
"If I find the family that helped us, I will help them too," she said.
Cote d'Ivoire hosted most of the 350,000 Liberians who fled their country during 14 years of conflict. Now, with a protracted political stalemate and escalating violence, some 90,000 refugees from Cote d'Ivoire have entered Liberia, the United Nations special representative for Liberia, Ellen Margrethe Løj, told the Security Council on Wednesday. Of them, 40,000 are registered and 50,000 have arrived in the past 18 days alone, she said.
Løj, echoing concerns raised by Liberian diplomats and others, said there was increasing worry over the potential security fallout from the influx of such large numbers of refugees.
"Liberia is much stronger today than it was eight years ago," said Løj, who also heads the United Nations Mission in Liberia (Unmil). "Nevertheless, we should not take these eight years of unbroken peace for granted. Continued and increased international engagement will be needed."
Deteriorating Security
Security has already deteriorated considerably in Cote d'Ivoire with fighting in the countryside between soldiers and militia backing incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo and New Forces fighters who support president-elect Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo, despite having lost the November run-off election that was certified by the United Nations, has refused to cede power. Ouattara has been recognized by the international community as Cote d'Ivoire's legitimate president. He and his cabinet remain holed up in a hotel in the country's commercial capital Abidjan.
Cote d'Ivoire suffered a brief civil war that ended with a 2005 peace accord that led to last year's elections. There are growing fears that all-out conflict will resume with the potential to engulf much of the West African region.
Some 10,000 UN peacekeepers are in Cote d'Ivoire to monitor the 2005 peace accord, protect UN personnel and installations, and shield civilians under immediate threat of physical violence. They have been protecting Ouattara and his cabinet and have come under attack by pro-Gbagbo forces.
In addition to the tens of thousands of people who have fled Cote d'Ivoire, the UN says there are an additional 300,000 internally displaced. Most of them have fled fighting in Abidjan between allies of Ouattara and Gbagbo. Aid workers have expressed frustration over an inability to care for the wounded, and hunger is a growing threat.
The western area of Cote d'Ivoire is increasingly insecure. During the nation's civil war, the country was divided between pro-Ouattara forces in the north and pro-Gbagbo troops in the south. That line now appears to be blurring, according to refugees.
Monique Kpahn, 55, said she fled her home two weeks ago when she heard gunfire and saw others running away. From the camp, she said, she sometimes still hears shooting in Cote d'Ivoire.
"I left my husband at the border to take care of our things," she said.
Settling In
Kpahn and some of the other refugees at Bahn camp engage in small trade to help earn money while they wait on their food rations. Working in her shelter, which was sweltering in the noon heat, Kpahn wrapped up snuff in small pieces of plastic. Children helped her tie off the bags.
Dina Sinigallia, an external relations officer with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said the agency's first priority is to secure the safety of the refugees and move them from the border. She said they receive items to allow them to carry out their lives as normal as possible.
"They get ration cards, they get a full pack of non-food items, meaning they get kitchen sets. They have already received blankets. They have already received sleeping mats," she said.
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Sinigallia said the refugee influx has changed from being a slow and steady trickle to the arrival of large families.
Almost 400 shelters have been built so far and a dozen more are erected each day at Bahn, according to UNHCR. The camp is expected to host about 15,000 refugees, with a family of five able to reside in each shelter, according to Monika Olsen, program manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which manages the camp. Many refugees still live with local Liberians.
"We have about 15 designated villages they can go to … so they have a choice to go to the camps, stay in the villages or remain by the border," Olsen said.
Meeting various healthcare needs of the refugees has been daunting, said Mary Lankah, a physician assistant and officer in charge of the Saclepea Health Center.
"We are treating them for malaria, severe anemia, tuberculosis, HIV and cancer too," she said. So far, she said, they have not had to aid anyone who has been wounded in the fighting.
See "Tout le Monde etait en train de fuir" on our French site.
