Spare a prayer for Liberia

"An estimated 39,784 Ivoirian Refugee are said to have arrived in Liberia with 5,000 more arriving at Liberian border villages DAILY as a result of renewed fighting in western Cote d'Ivoire this week. Until mid-week, about 100 Ivoirians were crossing the border daily. But over the past 24 hours alone, hundreds of people have been crossing over into Liberia through the Buutuo, Gborplay and Luguatuo crossing points in Nimba County". Click here for full article.

Nimba County was the scene of repeated fighting during the long Liberian war, with many of the population seeking refuge in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire, and the remainder subjected to unbelievable atrocities again and again. I think no other county suffered as badly. In the midst of the fighting, only one NGO continued to operate using it's own community health ambassadors: Equip Liberia, who Sally and I worked for in 2006/2007. Now Nimba County is repaying the favour by hosting thousands of Cote d'Ivoire refugees, and Equip continues to be one of the many NGos providing facilities, in particularly water and sanitation facilities (latrines and wells). God bless 'em. Check out equipliberia.org or thehooversinternational.blogspot.com for more info. Please also pray for a quick and peaceful solution to the crises in Cote d'Ivoire, which is threatening the stability of the whole region. Please specifically pray that the UN will give permission for the Nigerian lead ECOMOG armies to forcefully bring peace to the country, like they did in Liberia in 2003 and Sierra Leone in 2001. Olly