Liberian Health Minister Reports Minimal Health Services in Monrovia, Increased Risk to Women

ACCRA, GHANA – In a telephone interview Monday from the besieged capital of Monrovia, Liberian Minister of Health Dr Peter Coleman said that doctors and nurses in two public hospitals were working overtime to deal with mounting casualties from combatants and non-combatants alike, but were becoming overwhelmed by a lack of adequate personnel and supplies.

The Minister described the existence of a functioning surgical unit in one of the two Monrovia hospitals, but warned that supplies pre-positioned by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other humanitarian relief agencies before the latest outbreak of fighting were already beginning to run out.

Some women requiring emergency obstetric care were being referred by ambulance to a functioning mission hospital nearby, but the ongoing fighting and lack of adequate food, water and health care were rapidly increasing the number of pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, dispatched an urgent shipment of emergency reproductive health supplies, medicine and equipment to Liberia last week – to provide assistance for safe child delivery, treatment of infections, and safe blood transfusion – but more than 70 per cent of the country remains inaccessible to humanitarian relief operations. The Fund has been supporting operations by the Liberian Red Cross and other national partners in as much of the war-ravaged country as possible.

UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid has joined UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the heads of other UN agencies in a call for an immediate ceasefire and full access to civilian populations in need.

The humanitarian situation, already extremely dire after more than a decade of fighting and destruction, became even more complicated last week as rebel advances on the capital turned Monrovia’s suburbs into a battle zone, causing hundreds of thousands of Liberians to flee in every direction. Most of the 115,000 displaced women, men and children living in camps surrounding Monrovia began to pour into the city, while others fled away from the capital, along with growing numbers of Monrovians who feared for their lives as fighting moved within striking distance of the city center.

According to Minister Coleman, tens of thousands of those driven from the camps last week have now relocated to the national stadium, where the Ministry of Health and international relief groups are struggling to meet basic health needs – including food, sanitation and water. But food and water are running low across Monrovia, and more supplies and equipment are desperately needed.

A UNFPA staff member reached by telephone this morning reported that thousands of those forced to leave the camps had also taken refuge in schools and other abandoned public buildings, were sleeping outside, or continued to flee Monrovia by foot.

After more than a decade of fighting, more than half of Liberia’s 2.3 million people are currently displaced. Many have been uprooted four or five times, in what is coming to be known as “continual redisplacement”. Education and health services are completely non-existent in most parts of the country, and more than 90 per cent of the population is now living in extreme poverty (less than $1 per day).

In addition, Minister Coleman said that pregnant women are coming under increased risk due to anaemia, malnutrition, and because the large numbers of people sleeping out in the open was fuelling an outbreak of malaria, all of which can be fatal for pregnant women and their babies.

Contact Information:

William A. Ryan
Tel.: +66 2 288 2446
Email: ryanw@unfpa.org

Kristin Hetle
Tel.: +1 212-297-5020
Email: hetle@unfpa.org

Abubakar Dungus
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5031
Email: dungus@unfpa.org