One of the world's worst crisis, says USAID

The sustained conflict in the Mano River countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone has created one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, and strained political and economic relations between the three states, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Wednesday. Since the beginning of the year there has been a steady improvement in the security and humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone, but the situation had declined in Liberia, USAID said in its situation report titled: " Mano River Countries: Complex Emergency Situation Report #3 (FY 2002)". Because of the region's complex emergency the US Ambassador in Monrovia, Bismarck Myrick, declared a disaster in Liberia on 10 June, the report said, adding that the USAID emergency coordinator was due to visit the country from Monday, to assess the humanitarian situation and help develop contingency plans. "A struggle for control of diamond fields in Sierra Leone has been at the heart of the crisis in recent years. Several failed peace accords and peacekeeping efforts, collapsed economies, and some of the worst human rights atrocities in recent history have made this one of the world's most severe humanitarian crisis," the report said. An estimated 1.1 million of the 15 million inhabitants in the three countries were estimated to be either internally displaced or were refugees, USAID said. It added: "From 1990 through 2001 the United States government provided more than US $900 million in emergency assistance to those affected by war in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea." The report said ten years of conflict had destroyed the short-term food security potential of parts of Sierra Leone. "The displacement of large segments of the population, loss of property, elimination of food stocks, absence of seed and the destruction of rural infrastructure has devastated household-level food security," it said. Guinea, it said, continued to host hundreds of thousands of refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone, although the security situation was stable. "On 5 November, 2001, the US Ambassador to Guinea, Barrie R. Walkley, re-declared a disaster for the ongoing complex emergency in Guinea," the report said. Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner told the US Senate on Tuesday that greed and lack of good governance were the root causes of Liberia's problems, the Department of State reported. "Taylor, the country's current president has set Liberia on a course towards ever greater hardship and suffering of the Liberian people. He waged war to gain power, but has failed to govern justly and wisely and now faces an armed revolt," he said. Liberia, Kansteiner said," would need help to recover from its present deplorable state." USAID's full report Click hereto download the Mano_River.pdf file.