SIERRA LEONE: Military Keeps A Tight Check on Relief Agencies

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Aug 8 1997 (IPS) - Sierra Leone’s military government has accused four aid agencies of “engaging in subversive activities against the interests of the revolution” and is keeping a close watch on the agencies’ activities.

The agencies are the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), CARE and the Sierra Leone Red Cross (SLRC).

The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council’s (AFRC) distrust of the agencies first surfaced two days ago when the AFRC Secretary of State for the Southern region, Major Augustine Kamara, called the representatives to his office in Bo, Sierra Leone’s second largest city.

Kamara told the representatives that: “Agents of the AFRC recently intercepted radio messages in Mende and Krio (two widely spoken languages) on CARE and MSF frequencies advising the Kamajor militia on the other end in Moyamba that they should desist from all activities as of now, because the army intends to go on the offensive.”

During Sierra Leone’s six-year civil conflict, the Kamajor, a militia of local hunters, fought alongside government troops against the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The RUF are now in alliance with the AFRC.

The military secretary ordered the impounding of the two organisations’ communications sets “until investigations into the affair are concluded”.

MSF’s head of mission in Sierra Leone, Steve O’Malley, Thursday confirmed to IPS that their radio set had been impounded. The organisation’s work is considerably hampered by the climate of insecurity, he added.

CARE officials said that their radio set in Bo and two truckloads of relief food had been seized by the military authorities. CARE operates in several districts in the South, East and Northern Provinces.

A Care official said his organisation has had trouble with the new government ever since it came to power. “In the wake of the military takeover in May, we lost two vehicles and nine motor bikes, which were commandeered by military officers and which are still to be fully recovered,” the CARE official told IPS.

The local Red Cross (SLRC) has come under heavy criticism from the military government, and one of its staff members was detained.

Juanna Jones, a nurse with the SLRC was detained last weekend by military personnel. The junta has accused her agency of conniving with the West African Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG) to bring ousted President Tejan Ahmed Kabbah back to power.

“They (the AFRC) even went further to charge that we do have stocks of essential drugs which we refuse to distribute and are therefore keeping them until President Kabbah returns,” said a SLRC official, who declined to be named.

“This is ridiculous, because we don’t serve President Kabbah personally, but the people of Sierra Leone,” the official added.

Since the military came to power on May 25, aid agencies working in this West African nation have been on a collision course with the new government. Many of their warehouses have been looted and vandalised by armed gangs.

At the World Food Programme’s (WFP) warehouses in Freetown and in other parts of the country, for example, armed men removed every single grain of relief food, forcing the WFP to close the bulk of its operations and remove most of its expatriate staff. A skeleton staff of Sierra Leoneans now work in the rural areas.

Non-governmental groups involved in relief work are increasingly concerned that the security situation in the country will worsen, following the breakdown of negotiations for a return to civilian rule last month in Cote d’Ivoire.

“We witness with grave concern the continued suffering of the masses of this country and envisage the further deterioration of their condition now that negotiations have broken down,” said a statement released here on Thursday by 10 NGOs.

“The growing numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees, the heightening levels of malnutrition and under nutrition, the insecurity, which is hampering the activities of NGOs, and the shortage of food and other essential commodities, are all causing untold hardships and could lead to an unimaginable humanitarian crisis in the country,” the NGOs warned.