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UN: UN
REFUGEE AGENCY MOVES SUPPLIES FROM LIBERIA TO MAURITANIA FOR AID OPERATION:
17/10/2007
(MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 17 October 2007 –
The United Nations refugee agency has
succeeded in dispatching a truck convoy from Liberia to Mauritania in a 25-day
journey aimed at redeploying resources as part of a broader cost-saving effort
that will benefit thousands of people.
“This
was an extraordinary achievement. The redeployment was done under extreme
conditions and it succeeded thanks to the perseverance of the convoy members,”
said Ursula Aboubacar, Deputy Director of UNHCR's Middle East and North Africa
Bureau.
The 20
trucks from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which arrived in
southern Mauritania on Monday, will be used to support the voluntary
repatriation and reintegration of Mauritanian refugees from Senegal and Mali.
The
vehicles driven by staff from UNHCR's partner GTZ, the German aid agency,
carried 2,000 buckets, 1,600 kitchen sets, 4,500 plates, 9,600 bars of soaps,
3,125 blankets, 3,920 jerry cans, 20 bales of fabric, 3,600 items of women's
clothing and numerous mosquito nets.
The
convoy was sent to Mauritania as part of UNHCR efforts to maximize the use of
existing resources and minimize the cost of the new operation. The UN agency is
looking at ways to redeploy as many assets as possible from other programmes
currently phasing down in West Africa. It wound up the Liberia assisted
repatriation programme at the end of June this year after helping more than
100,000 refugees go back home since late 2005.
The
resources from Liberia will be badly needed by UNHCR, which said it is facing
funding shortages for the Mauritania operation. The agency launched a $7 million
appeal at the end of August to fund the voluntary repatriation of 24,000
Mauritanian refugees, mainly from Senegal and Mali.
“This
return will help resolve one of the most protracted refugee situations in Africa
and represents the only durable solution in the Middle East and North Africa
region at present. Some of the Mauritanian refugees have spent more than two
decades in exile,” UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told journalists in
Geneva on Tuesday.
“The
17-month operation, which faces some major logistical challenges, is scheduled
to start this month,” she said, while adding that “with only $500,000
received so far, we fear serious delays.”
More
than 60,000 Mauritanians fled to Senegal and Mali in April 1989 when a
long-standing border dispute between the two countries escalated into ethnic
violence.
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Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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