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General context
During the Sierra Leonean conflict that started in 1991, nearly 40% of the population was forced to flee their place of living. Hundreds of thousands of people left for Guinea and Liberia, but the majority found refuge in displaced camps in Sierra Leone. At the end of 1995, more than one million people were displaced in camps in Freetown, Makeni, Bo, Kenema, Segbwema and Daru. With the cease-fire and the peace talks initiated in March 1996 by the Sierra Leonean Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the displaced persons and the refugees started coming back to their place of origin. The peace agreement was signed on 30th November 1996 in Abidjan.
In January 1997 the security situation deteriorated again with an increase in armed clashes between the traditional militia (Kamajors), the army and occasionally the RUF in the Districts of Kenema, Kailahun and Pujehun. In March and April unrest expanded further to the Northern Province (Tonkolili, Port Loko and Bombali). On 25th May 1997, the Government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was ousted during a coup by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), headed by Major Johnny-Paul Koroma. The whole international community, including the ECOWAS, the OAU and the UN immediately condemned the coup and asked for the return of Kabbah. The Nigerian contingent that had been helping the Government to fight the RUF over the last years was reinforced by ECOMOG troops from Liberia. On 2 June 1997, fighting broke out in Freetown between the Nigerian armed forces and the AFRC, which had in the meantime been rallied by the People's Army (former Revolutionary United Front-RUF). At the end of June the ECOWAS declared its willingness to use any means (dialogue, economic sanctions and military action) to bring back the elected Government and appointed a committee of four states (Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria) to conduct the ECOWAS action. In June, many clashes between the Kamajors and the army took place in the center and the east of the country. Clashes over the control of Lungi international airport were reported at the beginning of July, between the Nigerian and Sierra Leonean armed forces.
Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded since the 25th of May. Violence again forced tens of thousands of people to flee. Many of them left Freetown heading to the Guinean border or to the northern areas. In the center and in the east, a number of villages were abandonned and people converged on the cities of Bo and Kenema. In July thousands of people crossed into Liberia from neighbouring Pujehun to escape the battle for the control of the border.
The ICRC in Sierra Leone
The Republic of Sierra Leone is a party to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 (since 1965) and the two Additional Protocols of 1977 (since 1986). These treaties of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) apply to the current armed conflict.
Assistance to the civilian population
Most of the people living in areas affected by the war had to leave their villages to seek refuge. This prevented them from farming, which disrupted their previously balanced diet. During the war chronic malnutrition set in and caused the death of many civilians, especially children. The ICRC conducted nutritional surveys of the population in the eastern Districts of Kailahun and Pujehun, which had been most severely affected by the war, and began distributing food in February 1996 to 180,000 people living in these regions. 4,600 tonnes of food (maize meal, corn/soya blend and vegetable oil) were distributed between February and November 1996, when the new crops allowed the population to regain some autonomy.
Reinforcing food autonomy
In 1996 and at the beginning of 1997, the ICRC was actively engaged in helping the people to resettle. Due to the food scarcity of former years, there were no seeds left for sowing. In cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, the ICRC decided to carry out an extensive seed distribution programme to the same population of 180,000 persons. Between May and October 1996, the farmers were provided with 1,200 tonnes of rice and groundnut seeds, together with 52,000 hoes. At the end of 1996, mixed vegetable seed kits (tomato, cucumber, onion, gombo, pepper, eggplant) were distributed to 12,000 families to restart gardening. As agricultural rehabilitation can not be achieved within a single season, the ICRC continued the seed distribution programme in 1997, with again 1,200 mt of rice and groundnut seeds, 41,000 mt of vegetable seeds and 72,000 hoes distributed so far (Sept 1997).
A help to the returnees
The people returning to their places of origin have lost everything while in exile. To assist them in their resettling, the ICRC provided at the beginning of 1997, 130,000 persons with cooking sets, clothes, blankets and other items covering basic needs .
Assistance distributed during first semester 1997
Cereals 410 tonnes Hoes 76'000 units Bulgur 32 tonnes Plastic sheeting 1'100 rolls Vegetable oil 64 tonnes Kitchen sets 15'700 units Pulses 78 tonnes Buckets 37'000 units Upland rice seeds 500 tonnes Blankets 100'000 units Swamp rice seeds 323 tonnes Soap 657'000 units Groundnut seeds 300 tonnes Candles 221'000 units Vegetable seed kits 36'000 units
Medical and sanitation activities
Following the fighting of May and June 1997, the ICRC and the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS) were able to evacuate dozens of wounded people to hospitals. An ICRC surgical team (surgeon, anaesthesist, OT nurse) arrived in Freetown beginning of June and worked until end of July in a private clinic that has been transformed into a Red Cross facility. Today contacts are being maintained with the medical facilities in order to supply assistance and allow a medical team to return and be immediately operational, would emergency needs arise.
Due to the reduction of commercial activities consequent to the coup and the onset of the rainy season, the public health situation deteriorated in the populated areas of Freetown. The people could not afford anymore the necessary drugs to treat illnesses such as malaria, dysentery and respiratory infections. This situation prompted the ICRC to open 5 health centers in the poorest areas of the capital in order to provide consultations, treatments and child vaccinations (diphteria, tetanus, polio, measles). In the east of the country, the ICRC supports 10 similar health posts. It also runs a dispensary in Kenema in cooperation with the SLRCS, which gives an average of 800 consultations a week.
Two sanitation engineers are working on improving public health. They increase the quality and availability of drinking water by chlorinating wells, repairing damaged ones and constructing new water catchment structures. The ICRC has also been helping to build 500 additional latrines in the camps for displaced persons in the east. In Freetown, it has installed water tanks in two hospitals and has conducted a survey on the capital's water supply system.
Protection
The ICRC has access to the persons detained in relation with state security, in order to evaluate their state of health and their conditions of detention. It visits detainees in the Central prison and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Freetown, the police stations and the military barracks all over the country.
In collaboration with the SLRCS, the ICRC also helps to restore family links between the refugees abroad and their relatives in the country by enabling them to exchange Red Cross messages (RCM). During the first half of 1997, 1200 RCM have been exchanged between people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Neutral intermediary
In 1996, the ICRC facilitated the holding of peace talks by acting as a neutral intermediary between the two parties upon request of the Sierra Leonean Government, the RUF as well as the main mediator, the government of Ivory Coast. It arranged for an RUF delegation to travel under the protection of the Red Cross emblem to Cote d'Ivoire to sit at the negotiation table with representatives of the Government. In November 1996, the talks resulted in the signature of a peace agreement.
During the fighting that took place in Freetown on June 2, 1997, the ICRC mediated a truce between the Nigerian and Sierra Leonean parties which allowed hundreds of civilians to evacuate a hotel that had come under fire.
Dissemination of international humanitarian law
The ICRC regularly holds information meetings with different groups, including members of the Sierra Leonean and Nigerian armed forces, the People's Army, governmental and traditional authorities, local militias (Kamajors), students, journalists, etc. The aim of these meetings is to explain the modalities of work of the Red Cross as well as to introduce the principles of international humanitarian law (IHL).
Cooperation with the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS)
Most of the current ICRC activities are carried out in co-operation with the National Society: evacuations of the wounded, manpower support to the hospitals, running of the health centres, the tracing of separated family members, communication work. In the long term, the ICRC sponsors specific projects of the National Society, such as the training and equipping of the first-aid emergency teams in Freetown, Lungi, Bo, Kenema and Makeni.
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The ICRC started working in Sierra Leone in 1991. In July 1997, THERE were 180 LOCALLY HIRED employees and 21 expatriates WORKING on the operation in Sierra Leone, including members of the National Red Cross Societies of Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland and Sweden. The ICRC's main office is located in Freetown (10 expatriates). It has offices in Makeni (2 expatriates), Kenema (4 expatriates), Segbwema (3 expatriates) and Zimmi (2 expatriates). The operations in Sierra Leone are coordinated by the ICRC's regional delegation in Abidjan.
ICRC Regional Delegation in Abidjan ICRC Mission in Freetown Avenue Franchet d'Esperey 6, Cantonment Road, B.P.459 - 01 Abidjan Brookfields, Freetown Tel. ++ 225 222 459 Fax 222 456 Tel. ++ 232 22 241 438 Fax 242 217
ICRC Freetown, July 1997
UNQUOTE Best regards, Press Division
[Via the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa (IRIN-WA) Reports mailing list. The material contained in this communication may not necessarily reflect the views of the UN or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts from this report should be attributed to the original sources where appropriate. For further information: e-mail irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci, Tel: +225 217367 Fax: +225 216335.]
Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19970911155936.0075cef8@pop.africaonline.co.ci> Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 15:59:36 +0100 From: UN DHA IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci> Subject: Sierra Leone: ICRC - FACT SHEET SIERRA LEONE 97.9.11
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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