| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
News Release
17 May 1998
WFP CONCERNED BY THE POOR CONDITION OF REFUGEES FLEEING THE FIGHTING IN SIERRA LEONE
Abidjan - The United Nations World Food Programme said today that it is concerned by the deteriorating condition of refugees fleeing the fighting in Eastern Sierra Leone. Refugees, arriving by the hundreds every day in Gueckedou in South Western Guinea, are suffering from exhaustion, diseases and malnutrition. Since early March, more than 160,000 Sierra Leoneans crossed the Guinean border.
During the past two weeks, 27 Sierra Leonean refugees died of respiratory diseases, diarrhoea, malaria or malnutrition. Children are the worst affected. Among the 27 refugees who died, 16 were children under the age of five.
Health workers are attributing these deaths to the time spent by the refugees in the bush hiding from armed militiamen. Many refugees lived several weeks without shelter in the bush eating leaves, berries and roots. The shortage of adequate shelter, clean water and sanitation in the camps is also responsible for the poor health of many Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea.
"We are very concerned by the growing number of refugees, especially children, dying from diseases and malnutrition few days after their arrival in Guinea" Paul Ares, WFP Regional Manager for coastal West Africa said. "More than 1,600 children have been admitted in health clinics and therapeutic feeding centres in the last two months and this number is rising sharply."
>From 12 in March, the number of children admitted in therapeutic feeding centres rose to 88 for the first ten days of May. WFP has provided to therapeutic feeding centres more than 12 metric tons of high protein food, enough to feed 1,600 children for one month. These centres are operated by the local Guinean Health Authority in partnership with GTZ.
WFP is also feeding dozens of civilians who have been wounded by members of the ousted military junta. Staff at the local hospital in Gueckedou in South Western Guinea have treated 47 people some of them with limbs severed by machete blows. One of the victims contracted tetanus and died a few days later at the hospital.
The World Food Programme has stepped up food deliveries to South Western Guinea to cope with the refugee influx. WFP has now positioned in the region more than 3,000 metric tons of food enough to feed 250,000 people for one month.
A fierce battle is opposing in Eastern Sierra Leone a Nigerian-led West African intervention force and members of the ousted military junta.
For more information, contact :
Wagdi Othman WFP Information Officer Abidjan Tel. (office) +225 21 17 09 or (home) +225 21 98 55
[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: Mon, 18 May 1998 10:17:24 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Sierra Leone: WFP News Release on poor condition of refugees in Guinea, 98.5.18
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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