A refugee for nearly 15 of his 40 years, Daniel J. Kinapoe’s life is filled with horrific memories. Witnessing the brutal murder of four of his brothers and his sister - who was weeks away from giving birth to twins - remains the worst. That indelible memory and life-altering event convinced Daniel that even if he wanted to live in his homeland, Liberia was no longer safe. During the next 12 years, Daniel lived a relatively quiet and peaceful life in the southwestern Ivorian town of Tabou, where he taught school and raised his five children.

More than 600,000 children have been immunized against measles in the Liberian capital Monrovia and two nearby counties since peace returned to the country in August, UNICEF said last Thursday. The organisation said it aimed to complete coverage of Montserrado and Margibi counties, just to the north of Monrovia, by the end of this year.

Bodies of ex-government militiamen lay sprawled in the streets of Liberia's capital Wednesday as U.N. peacekeepers confronted gunmen on a rampage of burning, shooting and looting in Monrovia's bloodiest day since an August peace deal. The violence, launched by militiamen loyal to ousted President Charles Taylor demanding cash to give up their guns, was the first serious threat to a U.N.-backed disarmament project.

The United Nations was due to torch a ceremonial pyre of surrendered weapons to light a fire under the peace process in war-torn Liberia, but 14 years of bloodshed may not be reduced to ashes so easily. With the 50 million-dollar (42 million-euro) disarmament program the UN Mission to Liberia (UNMIL) hopes not only to convince an estimated 50,000 combatants to relinquish their weapons but also to reintegrate them in a civilian society battered by two back-to-back civil wars since 1989.

Despite the peace agreement of 18 August 2003 and the establishment of a United Nations (UN) peace-keeping operation, civilians continue to be killed, raped, used as forced labour and driven from their homes, an Amnesty International delegation recently returned from Liberia concluded. Speedy deployment of additional UN peace-keeping forces is necessary to provide protection. In addition, the perpetrators of these abuses must be made to understand that they will be held accountable.

We are looking for an outstanding individual to lead our programme in Liberia and to strengthen its impact and quality with a view to growing the scope of Oxfam's response even further.

The Humanitas Global Commission for Africa has urged the international community, particularly the United Nations, European Union, ECOWAS, the United States, Britain, France and others to critically evaluate and reconsider financial and technical support until fundamental improvement is made in the structure and composition of the transitional government.

At least 10,000 civilians fleeing skirmishes between former government fighters and MODEL rebels in Nimba County in north central Liberia, have sought shelter in the relatively unscathed town of Saclepea, relief workers said on Monday.

An inter-agency team visiting eastern Liberia has reported that thousands of Liberian refugees are waiting on the Ivorian side of the border to return home once relief aid arrives – aid that will remain limited until the area is secured by peacekeeping troops.

UNICEF says that it expects hundreds of thousands of children to return to studies during Liberia’s Back-to-School campaign - thousands of them for the first time in their lives. Speaking from New York on the first day of the massive education push, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said that it is expected that increasing numbers of children - up to 750,000 - will take to their books as the effort to reach them extends into still troubled counties.

The government of Guinea violated the United Nations arms embargo on Liberia and supplied weapons that Liberian rebels used to commit atrocities, Human Rights Watch charged in a briefing paper released this week. On Thursday the U.N. Security Council, of which Guinea is an elected member, is due to review the sanctions regime on Liberia, which is in force until May.

Whether Liberia takes advantage of its best chance for peace in years and West Africa regains stability depends on bold action by the UN, which needs to shape a comprehensive regional security strategy while rapidly building its peacekeeping force up to strength, says a new report from the International Crisis Group. The report analyses the immediate security threats the UN mission (UNMIL) faces and recommends steps that should be taken by various parties.

A United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone has begun hearing appeals against their indictments from some of those accused of war crimes. The case of Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, accused of supporting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone was the first to be heard.

Hundreds of thousands of children who were kept out of class by Liberia's civil war have started receiving school kits containing pencils and exercise books in preparation for a Back-To-School (BTS) programme, which will be launched on 3 November.

Many Liberian families are living in appalling conditions at the mercy of rebels and fighters who backed former President Charles Taylor. In the capital, the deployment of peacekeepers and the installation of an interim government has brought calm. But outside Monrovia, armed gangs are terrorising civilians.

Liberia's transitional leader, Gyude Bryant, has agreed to review some of the nominees for senior government appointments that he rejected last week, the speaker of Parliament, George Dweh, said. This follows a threat by LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) to pull out of Bryant's broad-based government, in protest at Bryant's rejection of three LURD nominees.

Even with Charles Taylor gone, the country’s problems run deep and the peace there is still extremely fragile, says a new paper from the South African based Institute of Security Studies. "Throughout the recent conflict, both rebel groups maintained their primary goal was the removal of Charles Taylor, but ethnic based dissatisfaction and disempowerment lie at the root of their grievances. Neither group is likely to accept any long-term political scenario that does not give them a substantial share of power."

The election of a former rebel leader as parliamentary speaker in Liberia has paved the way for the formation of an interim power-sharing peace government. There are concerns that many of the officials in the interim phase have tainted pasts.

A week after the inauguration of a new government in Liberia, a United Nations inter-agency mission has found that displaced persons "continue to stream" into refugee camps, which need to be expanded, according to a report from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Medicins Sans Frontiers has set up a project to treat the victims of rape and sexual violence near Liberia's capital, Monrovia, in the wake of the drawn-out civil war that has decimated the country over the last 14 years. The project opened in the first week of October. It is feared that a high proportion of woman and children suffered brutal sexual abuse or attacks during the course of the conflict, with women being taken from their families and used as 'sex slaves', and children as young as five being assaulted.