Echoes of Liberian Civil Wars

Recent happenings in Ghana and Liberia show the long-suffering nature of post-war hardship, especially for affected populations. The Liberian Civil Wars, which both took place between 1989-2003, saw the forced migration of thousands of Liberians to various parts of West Africa. By May 1990, thousands of refugees had arrived in Ghana through flights meant to pick up Ghanaian nationals from conflict zones. The Liberian refugee situation in Ghana has been on for a while, and the latter’s local authorities in Buduburam, where the refugees settled, had long sought to demolish the camps for reasons that border on land ownership and business pursuits that are hindered by the presence of the refugees.

During the thirty-four years of occupation, refugees in the Buduburam camp built lives, businesses, and churches and sought education for their wards. Many Liberians living there were born in it, so the reality of the returnees has become all the more complex. In 2000, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) cut humanitarian aid to Liberian refugees and in 2010, the Ghanaian Refugee Board reached an agreement with the UNHRC to close Buduburam as a refugee camp and offered options to either remain in Ghana or return to Liberia. Ten years of providing humanitarian assistance to refugees is commendable work. However, the economic opportunities available to refugees make the cessation of human aid seem malicious. Despite limited economic opportunities and lack of adequate social amenities in Buduburam, Liberians living there pushed forward.

The demolition of the camp has left thousands of Liberians homeless in Ghana, a partial repetition of the tragedy once suffered in their home country. The options available to them are stark and require rebuilding their lives from scratch. For refugees who have returned to Liberia, access to resources necessary to settle down is few, and a refugee camp/humanitarian need situation is unfurling a second time. Returnees have had to settle in congested shelters with poor sanitary and health conditions while awaiting settlement into society. For many returnees, life in Ghana was more predictable than their current realities and leaving was not on the cards before the Buduburam demolition. This adversity is not suffered by returnees alone but also by the refugees who have been unable to repatriate to Liberia and are left stranded in Ghana.

The issue with the Liberian repatriation is primarily economic. With 52 per cent of the nation’s population regarded as multidimensionally poor and another 23 per cent considered vulnerable, according to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the capacity of Liberia to reintegrate returnees into its economy is weak. It is for this same reason that refugees in other countries, even Ghana, are hesitant to return to Liberia. Research carried out by Forced Migration Review showed that economic reintegration efforts by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) failed because entrepreneurship and skill-training programmes were not supplemented with capital to kickstart business ventures.

In handling the returnee situation, it is crucial to set up cohesive humanitarian schemes in repatriated countries to reintegrate returnees adequately into economic and social spaces. Such humanitarian schemes will also ensure that Liberians stranded in other countries have a reliable reintegration system whenever they return. The post-effects of conflict are deep-rooted, and the chasm created by the Liberian civil war is vast. The need for a rigorous reintegration system that targets various parts of a returnee’s affairs is necessary for rebuilding Liberia and recovering from the effects of the war.