wfn.org | Conditions in Liberia "Terrible"

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

NEWSBRIEF

September 30, 1996

CONDITIONS IN LIBERIA "TERRIBLE"

An assessment mission to Liberia indicates the condition of the
people is "quite terrible," according to Action by Churches
Together (ACT).  Tania Bernath of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) estimates that more than 50 percent of the population
around Tubmanburg suffer from malnutrition and urgently require
food and emergency medical assistance.  ACT is a worldwide
network of churches, including the LWF, meeting human need
through coordinated emergency response.  Aid organizations in the
area report the hospital completed looted and hungry people
unable to obtain relief food supplies for eight months.
According to ACT, a coalition of aid organizations arrived in
Tubmanburg in early September with a shipment of basic health
supplies and evacuated a small number of critically ill women and
children. Trucks arrived in Tubmanburg with food that was
initially distributed to some 5,000 severely malnourished
children. Further truck-loads of emergency food supplies have
since been sent to the city.  Partners of ACT will deal with an
initial three-month food distribution.  Plans are underway to
prepare an joint, coordinated request to the ACT Network for the
next phase of humanitarian intervention in Liberia. This plan
will be prepared between ACT partners - Lutheran World
Federation, the Liberian Council of Churches and the Liberian
Lutheran Church.  ACT calls the situation in Liberia a
"protracted crisis" and "an extremely complicated issue."  Relief
activities are likely to include emergency school feeding,
vulnerable group feeding, reintegration of refugees and those
internally displaced, bridge/road repair, agriculture and health.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958 or AHAFFTEN@ELCA.ORG; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir.,
(312) 380-2955 or FRANKI@ELCA.ORG