Grand Gedeh County — The second-biggest camp for Ivorian refugees in Grand Gedeh County will close by December, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has told the Independent and Authoritative Heritage.
“It is our plan to decommission Duogee as soon as possible,” Mr. Joern Bastian of UNHCR told the Heritage. “Hopefully by December this year, we will be doing that. Our plan is to expand the other camps to accommodate the huge number from Duogee.” Mr. Bastian is the UN agency’s officer-in-charge in Zwedru and its head of field security.
The camp was initially scheduled to close by the end of September but logistical problems have delayed the move, Mr. Bastian said, citing access to trucks to transport the people. Currently, 36,000 Ivorian refugees officially reside in Grand Gedeh County. Of this number, 19, 406 live in the three existing camps, while the remaining 16,594 live in host communities in the county.
The Duogee Refugee Camp, which opened in April, 2011, is home to 5,836 refugees. Monhon Guiro Achille, 45, is one of them. Mr. Achille is from the Ivory Coast border town of Toulepleu, which fell to the rebels in March, 2011. Achille said the camp closure is bad news for his people.
Over the past year, he said, refugees have enjoyed a good relationship with their Liberian host community. They speak the same language and have many family connections. “We feel very happy and secure here,” Mr. Achille said. “In fact, the host community gave us land for farming.” Refugees grow and sell cassava, plantains and peppers.
“As you can see, we have grown so many things here. We don’t want to make a move to somewhere else.” Duogee camp, which is approximately an hour drive from Zwedru, is sub-divided into 12 blocs ranging from A-L. The total land space given out by the host community for the refugees to reside is 77 acres, but only 55 acres have been occupied, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which manages the camp.
At this camp, the Ivorian refugees live in thatched-roof shelters and survive on food rations of rice, oil, salt and split peas provided by the World Food Program (WFP) through UNHCR. Apart from UNHCR and LRRRC, there are other non-governmental organizations that help the refugees in the areas of healthcare delivery, family tracing, water and sanitation, livelihood and agriculture activities such as crop production and livestock production.
There is also an area for recreational activities for youth and children, and a vocational center where women can acquire basic skills such as sewing, tie-dying and pastry making. When Dougee closes, two refugee camps will remain in Grand Gedeh – Solo and PTP, which stands for Prime Timber Production, a company that once occupied the land.
PTP opened September 1, 2011 and is projected to become the largest camp for Ivorian refugees in Liberia. Its present population is just over 8,400. In a few years, it is expected to be home to 25,000 refugees. The grounds, which cover more than 265 hectares, include a school, a health clinic and even a new jail.
“The more camps you run, the more expenses you go through so, we are trying to put into place a mechanism to have only two permanent camps operational.” The Liberia Refugees Repatriation and Resettlement Committee (LRRRC), the Liberian Government relevant arm that regulates activities of refugees and NGOs, supports the decommissioning and camp consolidation exercise.
Mr. Charles T. Greene, Jr., Head of LRRRC in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County also told the Heritage that the Government of Liberia (GOL) through the LRRRC will do the camp consolidation between September and December of this year.
“By December this year, or latest January next year, the Duogee Refugee will be officially closed down to have the rest of the people transferred to other camps. The camp consolidation process will last from September to December this year, and the next step is to decommission the Duogee Refugees,” said Mr. Greene.
In preparing to close Duogee, a team of six refugees from the camp — three men and three women — have been taken on tours of the other camps in Grand Gedeh, Nimba and Maryland. The “go and see visits” are meant to provide the refugees with first-hand information that they can take back to their people who get to decide which camp to move to.
Accordingly, that could be Solo or PTP in Grand Gedeh County, Bahn in Nimba County or Little Webo in Maryland County, depending on the choice of the individual refugee family. There is also a possibility of some of them moving to camps in neighboring River Gee County.
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