Liberia: Fragile peace must be consolidated before IDPs can return home

Despite the apparent move towards peace in Liberia in recent months, the situation of thousands of the country's displaced remains desperate. While many of Liberia's estimated 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) may wish to return to their areas of origin, very few have been able to do so. Faltering attempts to disarm the country's estimated 45,000 combatants have so far done little to reassure civilians that the tenuous peace will hold.