The Director-General of the National Food Assistance Agency (NFAA), Borkai A.M. Sirleaf, is at the head of a four-man team of technicians set out for Foya and surrounding communities in Lofa County where citizens reportedly fled their homes in recent times for fear of the huge presence of Guinean military personnel.
The NFAA team is expected to join other state partner institutions to assess the impact of the situation on local residents who escaped from their towns and villages close to the border-crossing point inside Liberia. The move is part of government’s broader efforts to give relief to the affected citizens in that part of the country.
Other GoL partner institutions in the collaborative effort are the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC). While the NDMA and LRRRC are poised to get on the ground to see to the shelter and settlement needs of the displaced residents, NFAA will examine the food needs of the affected residents in the border-crossing communities of Lofa County.
In a brief conversation with the Deputy Director-General for Operations (DDGO) at NFAA, Elton S. Dickson, it was disclosed that the joint efforts of the three GoL institutions would go beyond just assessment of the situation at the Guinea-Liberia border. DDGO Dickson pointed out that the joint team is taking along a truck load of food and non-food items to the displaced residents as a start. “We are carrying food for those who fled their settlements as a result of the border-crossing issue in addition to facts-finding activities,” Hon. Dickson added. Touching on the essence of the exercise, DDGO Dickson said Liberia has come of age, and the country is now more determined to initiate intervention programs for its citizens than ever before.
