SIERRA LEONE-POPULATION: People On the Move, Again

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, May 19 1997 (IPS) - Sierra Leoneans are once again fleeing their rural homes for Freetown, the capital city, to escape the fresh outbreak of fighting between government troops and rebels in the North.

According to Lansana Salakole, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for Medicins Sans Frontiers(MSF) here, hundreds of people began showing up at the Clay Factory, Grafton, Waterloo and other camps for displaced persons in and around Freetown, following last week’s clashes.

Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) last week attacked Gbendembu, Kamakwie and other towns and villages in the North.

“We have been providing them with emergency medical treatment. Most of the children are anaemic and their parents look tired with blistering and swollen feet, because of the long trek in the bush,” Salakole said.

Thousands of people returned to their homes after the signing of the Peace Accord last November between the government and the RUF. The Accord called on “all displaced persons and refugees” to return “to their homes and be resettled”.

The refugees’ rural homes were declared “safe”, and many had started to put down roots once again, when the rebels launched what seems like a new offensive.

Aid agencies however have been caught off guard by the new movement of people. Thomas Kamara, a relief worker here, told IPS that the World Food Programme (WFP) at present, has no intention of resuming food supplies to displaced persons whose homes had been declared “safe”.

A WFP official confirmed to IPS Monday that food rations would only be supplied to locations, meaning at all places declared “safe”. “We are aware of an improvement in the security and so we have to encourage the displaced to return to safe places,” the official said.

But Kamara noted that the influx of people back to the camps in Freetown is an indication that some areas of the country are still not secure.

“I don’t think this was the best decision, because instability still reigns in the countryside,” Kamara said of the resettlement of people in their home areas. “Sending the displaced persons (home) is like signing their death warrants”.

“I managed to escape from Kamakwie (currently occupied by the RUF) with my wife, brother and three children,” said Samuel Koroma at Waterloo camp here. “How can we go on like this? Three days without food? We are literally living on magic,” Koroma told IPS Monday.

But the farmer was quick to point out that he would rather be in the camp than back at home in his village. “I don’t mind starving here to death, rather than returning to my home in Bombali District where a free-for-all carnage is taking place,” Koroma said.

Among the new arrivals are hundreds of children, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers. According to Salakole of the MSF, 100 pregnant women have been registered with one camp clinic set up by the MSF.

The arrival of people to the camps where there is no food has angered government critics here, who argue that people never should have been sent back to the rural areas without firm assurance that the security situation had improved.

Less than a week after the peace agreement was signed by the government and the armed opposition on November 30, 1996 in Cote d’Ivoire, more than 150 civilians were mutilated and killed in the North. There have been a number of skirmishes and attacks this year.

“They (the government) knew pretty well the security situation wasn’t just the best and yet went ahead with the repatriation of displaced persons,” said Mohammed Sillah of the Human Rights League. “Now, they’re being slaughtered in the trouble parts, where some of them unfortunately returned.

“This is totally abhorrent. The warring sides should stop killing innocent returnees and allow the cease-fire agreement to be implemented,” Sillah added.

The Minister of Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reconstruction, Edward Kamara, about a month ago, suspended the resettlement of people, because of highway attacks on them by the rebels. According to the government-owned ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper, the minister’s move was aimed at protecting the displaced.

International aid agencies working here estimate that the number of displaced persons at camps in and around Freetown is about 15,000.