The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday it had reunited 146 Liberian children with their families since its tracing programme resumed in November. They had become separated during the country’s civil war.
ICRC tracing delegate, Yayoi Hayashi, said all the children returned so far lived in and around the capital Monrovia, where security has been guaranteed for several months by United Nations peacekeeping troops.
However, she said the ICRC was unable to reunite many other children with families who had been traced to parts of the interior which were still outside UN control.
Hayashi said by telephone from Monrovia that many of these families had asked the Red Cross not to return their children just yet because security in their home area was still poor.
“The majority of them in areas outside Montserrado and Maghibi counties and most parts of Bong say we cannot return the children because in these areas security is still fragile,” she noted.
Hayashi said the 146 children who had so far been reunited with their families had been found living in refugee camps in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
They accounted for a fraction of the 2 000 Liberian children scattered in various West African countries whom the ICRC was trying to help, she added.
“Tracing their families in Liberia has been very difficult because some of them do not know where their families are and neither do we,” Hayashi said.
Hayashi said that tracing families and returning separated children should become easier once the UN peacekeeping force in Liberia reaches its full strength of 15 000 men next month and establishes garrisons throughout the interior.
“People are waiting for the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers to get to most parts of the country to ensure security. This would enable ICRC reunify the children with their families,” she said.
About 1 000 separated Liberian children are believed to be in Guinea, 700 in Sierra Leone, and 80 in Ghana. The ICRC has also registered about 20 in Nigeria. An unspecified number are believed to live in western Cote d’Ivoire, mainly round the rebel-held town of Danane and the government-controlled coastal town of Tabou.
Hayashi said that within Liberia, the ICRC has been dealing with about 100 separated children of whom 70 are former combatants. The latter have been disarmed and have been accommodated in interim care centres around the capital Monrovia, she added.
The ICRC resumed the tracing of separated children in November after a break of several months. This was caused by the intensification of Liberia’s 14-year civil war in the months leading up to the signing of a peace agreement in August.
The ICRC publishes photos of the children, and carries out poster campaigns, asking communities to look at the photos to try and identify them.
If a family member recognises a child, the information is cross-checked with the information supplied by the child. Once the family link is verified, the relative is invited to write a Red Cross message to his or her child and may request a family reunification.
Hayashi said the ICRC is currently repatriating betwween 15 and 20 children per week from Guinea and Sierra Leone on a special ICRC plane. – Irin