| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
10TH MARCH - 30TH MARCH, 1998
>From the Office of the United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator
Security
1. ECOMOG has now deployed large numbers of troops into the interior of Sierra Leone and has secured all major towns throughout the country with the exception of Kono and Kailahun. On 22nd March another two battalions departed the Western peninsula for the Eastern province and large numbers of troops are currently consolidating their position at Daru (East of Kenema) to prepare for the assault on Kailahun. Many Junta soldiers have surrendered to ECOMOG in the past month. These surrenderees are being registered by ECOMOG troops and in some areas, particularly in the southeast, they are incarcerated. In other parts of the country they are allowed to move freely within ECOMOG controlled areas.
2. With the exception of Kambia neither the United Nations nor NGOs have permitted international staff members to remain overnight in rural parts of Sierra Leone. Checkpoints established by ECOMOG and the Kamajors on the main highways in Sierra Leone have resulted in a regular flow of traffic between Freetown and Kambia but there are still relatively few vehicles on the road from Freetown to Bo. There are still some dead bodies from reprisal killings in evidence on the verge of some of the roads.
Political Developments
3. The UN Secretary-General submitted his most recent report on Sierra Leone to the Security Council on 25th March. The report commends the diplomacy of ECOWAS and its Committee of Five and highlights the contribution made by ECOMOG and the Civil Defence Forces in their removal of the junta. The report proposes that the Office of the UN Special Envoy be strengthened through the deployment of 10 UN military liaison officers, 2 police advisers and 1 human rights officer subject to the Security Council's approval. The UN Secretary-General has also established a Trust Fund for Sierra Leone to finance the immediate requirements of the GOSL, ECOMOG and the UN peace-building efforts. The British government has pledged 2 million pounds to this Trust Fund.
Humanitarian Developments
4. The formal lifting of the UN sanctions (except the import of weapons and the movement of junta associates) and the ECOWAS embargo has led to the importation of several consignments of fuel and foodstuffs by sea into Freetown. This has caused the price of basic commodities to plummet helping to alleviate the humanitarian plight of the civilian population. For example, the cost of diesel in Freetown has fallen from 20,000 leones per gallon at the beginning of February to its pre-coup level of 3,000 leones per gallon.
5. Although the main highways in Sierra Leone are deemed too insecure for the safe passage of international UN and NGO personnel, commercial transporters have taken advantage or reduced fuel prices to deliver rice and other foodstuffs to the urban centres of Bo, Kenema and Makeni. Markets in these areas are thriving and food prices have fallen to pre-coup levels. International staff have been monitoring humanitarian programmes by chartering commercial aircraft for one-day assessments.
6. On 26th March President Kabbah formally launched the United Nations Flash Appeal for Humanitarian Assistance to Sierra Leone in the presence of UN agencies and the local media. The Appeal seeks US $ 11.2 million to meet immediate humanitarian needs in Sierra Leone. Priority interventions identified in the Appeal include: provision of emergency agricultural inputs in time for the planting season in May; re-establishment of essential health services, disease control and immunisation; access to safe drinking water; child protection and food for malnourished children; emergency basic education inputs; logistics support to food distribution; assistance to and repatriation of Liberian refugees; initial support for the return of the displaced to their areas of origin; co-ordination support and logistical services.
7. The British Government has provided support to the Government of Sierra Leone to enable it to re-establish the machinery of Government. Valued at approximately 1 million pounds, the package includes generators, computers, public address equipment, vehicles and office furniture.
8. The Government of Sierra Leone has established a National Commission for Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reconstruction (NCRRR) to act as the Government focal point for the co-ordination and management of all humanitarian, rehabilitation, resettlement, reintegration and reconstruction work in Sierra Leone. The NCRRR, which is attached to the Office of the President, will not execute or implement programmes itself. The capacity of the NCRRR is limited at present, as the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner are the only two members of the Commission to have been appointed. UNDP is providing direct support in the recruitment of the technical staff of the NCRRR. The first interagency meeting at the new Commission was held on 30th March.
9. A recent assessment by World Vision in Bonthe district revealed that the nutritional status of the civilian population was less severe than previously thought. This is attributable to the healthy harvest in the district, which escaped misappropriation by armed elements. Brushing for the next planting season is underway. However, the assessment did reveal that there was an urgent need for health-related interventions in the area as the primary health care system was in disarray.
Food Aid
10. WFP, CRS, Care International and World Vision have continued to transport relief food by sea and by land into Sierra Leone. Since the ECOMOG intervention 3,600 metric tonnes of food have been shipped to Freetown by sea and approximately 2,000 metric tonnes by land through the Guinean border town of Pamelep. The cross-border food aid operation from Liberia through Bo Waterside has not yet commenced as ECOMOG are not yet able to provide escorts for relief convoys. The proposed food aid airlift operation to meet urgent humanitarian needs in Bo and Kenema has been temporarily suspended as WFP has successfully managed to transport relief food by road to these areas through Kambia. WFP and food supply NGOs have also moved modest quantities of food commodities to Makeni.
11. In Freetown ICRC has completed the first monthly food distribution to registered Liberian refugees, 8,000 beneficiaries in more than 50 institutions and 8,650 individuals in central Freetown whose houses have been burnt or destroyed. The ICRC is co-operating closely with the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS), whose volunteers are instrumental in carrying out relief distributions and monitoring.
12. ADRA and the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO) have completed a distribution to 9,800 beneficiaries in Waterloo and Grafton camps in Freetown. ACF will open wet feeding canteens (with a capacity of 1,000 per day) in the 6 most vulnerable areas of Freetown in April 1998. The target groups for these centres are children under the age of five, the elderly, and the disabled and lactating mothers. The period of intervention for the Wet Feeding Programme is two months. CRS is supporting youth centres and Care has supported Food for Work activities equivalent to at least 36,000 workdays thus far.
13. In rural areas the food aid regional technical committees have identified estimated vulnerable caseloads of 8,000 in Bo and 12,000 in Kenema. Food distributions to these groups will commence in the near future. In Makeni distributions to 9,600 beneficiaries of the Vulnerable Group Feeding Programme started on 30th March. 11 metric tonnes of rice donated by the British Government will only be distributed to institutions in Bo, Kenema and Makeni under the auspices of the technical committees in these areas. ACF has reactivated its therapeutic feeding centres in Bo and Makeni and Merlin in Kenema. There is an urgent need for Food for Work projects to repair the road between Bo and Pujehun.
Health
14. During the next three months UNICEF, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, has decided to revitalise 10 Peripheral Health Units on the Western peninsula outside the immediate environs of Freetown. This intervention will complement the activities of ICRC and MSF who are jointly supporting 10 clinics in central Freetown. UNICEF is also planning a mass immunisation campaign in Freetown targeting 100,000 children under the age of five and 50,000 women.
15. In Bo and Pujehun districts MSF continues to support a total of 12 clinics and 2 hospitals through the provision of drugs and food. In Kenema a mass immunisation campaign is being planned, as the cold chain has been broken and 8 measles cases have recently been identified.
16. Assessments of water conditions in Bo, Kenema and Makeni have revealed that main reason for the intermittent urban water supply in these areas is a shortage of fuel to operate the National Power Authority's generators. It is hoped that the fuel, which has recently arrived in Freetown, will be dispersed to rural areas in the near future. There is also a real need for chlorine to disinfect contaminated wells in these areas as most aid agencies lost their chlorine stocks during the period of the ECOMOG intervention. For example, in Makeni 1500 kg of chlorine owned by ICRC was tipped onto the ground by looters wanting to abduct the containers for the storage and transport of fuel.
17. Sanitation in all these areas is poor and there is a need for shovels, wheelbarrows, pickaxes and containers to dispose of the waste. However, significant progress has been made by aid agencies with regard to the exhumation and reburial of hundreds of civilians originally buried in mass graves in Bo and Kenema.
18. The assessment of the water and sanitation needs in Lungi conducted by UNICEF and Oxfam has been completed. UNICEF has agreed to construct 15 new wells, 500 new latrines and to rehabilitate 29 old wells. The facilities will service a basic catchment population of 35,000.
Child Protection
19. Child protection agencies have held several discussions with ECOMOG and the Government of Sierra Leone on the issue of the release of children held in detention and the need to protect these children from mob justice. In spite of these discussions ICRC has had difficulties securing the release of 8 children detained in Pademba road prison in Freetown.
20. The family-tracing programme has also suffered some severe setbacks following the recent ECOMOG intervention. Although ADRA and KDDO have some success in reunifying small numbers of children in Kambia and Kenema with their families, all family tracing activities in Bo have come to standstill. This is because the offices of Christian Brothers, the lead agency for family tracing activities in Bo, were burnt and all tracing and reunification data destroyed.
21. On 25th March 35 Civil Defence Unit (CDU) leaders in Freetown attended a one-day workshop, sponsored by UNICEF and CAW, on the need to protect children associated with fighting forces. Representatives from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Children and Gender Affairs, the Police and FM 98.1, the prop-democracy radio station, were also present. At the end of the workshop the CDU leaders agreed to work with child protection agencies to form child abuse committees within each unit. These units will help to ensure that children's rights are respected irrespective of whether they are combatants or non-combatant.
Refugees
22. Sierra Leoneans from Kono and Kailahun have continued to cross into Liberia and Guinea due to the depredations of Junta forces in these areas. It is estimated that 30,000 Sierra Leonean refugees have moved into Vahun in Upper Lofa in Liberia but the new caseload in Gueckedou in Guinea has not yet been registered. UNHCR has also facilitated the return of 3,500 Sierra Leonean refugees from Conakry to Sierra Leone.
Abidjan, 3 April 1998, 18:30 gmt
[ends]
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-extra]
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 18:39:43 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: SIERRA LEONE: UN-HACU Situation Report, 98.4.3 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980403183430.27536A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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