United Nations, July 11: Despite the relative calm in and around Liberia's capital Monrovia, UN and other relief workers, faced with an uncertain security environment and shortages of both staff and supplies, are struggling to meet the growing needs of thousands of displaced people. According to the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), even though the fragile ceasefire in Monrovia appears to be holding, relief agencies inside the beleaguered city are struggling to meet the needs of roughly 200,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) sheltering in more than 80 locations.

Monrovia's civilian population face a high crime rate, shortages of food and lack of clean drinking water, health care, and sanitation. A breakdown in law and order and the threat of renewed hostilities prevent IDPS from foraging for food in the bush, OCHA says. People are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to obtain food, such as selling off their remaining possessions, it adds.

Armed robberies at night, the UN says, are widespread. There have also been reports of armed scuffles over looted goods in Monrovia suburbs leading to deaths in some cases.

The city suburbs remain tense and deserted, and many residents are still apprehensive about returning to their Bureau Report