By Lansana Fofana
FREETOWN, Jul 17 1998 (IPS)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has opened support lines to clinics and hospitals in Sierra Leone to help treat thousands of victims of rebel atrocities in the north and east of the country.

“The seriousness of the situation has forced the ICRC to open support lines to five hospitals in the north and east of the country, and 20 clinics countrywide,” says Jean Luc Metzker, head of the ICRC delegation in Freetown, the capital city.

According to Metzker, 5000 civilians fell victim to rebel violence between May and June, and over 200 had limbs amputated by remnants of the ousted Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).

The ICRC has taken the lead in treating and caring for civilians. One reason for this is during the nine-month AFRC reign, there was a general decline in primary health care services throughout the country.

At the Netland Hospital in the west end of the capital, more than 50 complex and infected orthopaedic cases have been treated at the ICRC 60-bed reconstructive surgery facility.

“Most of the patients who come here have gunshot wounds, machete wounds, multiple lacerations and amputations,” says Stephanie O’Connor, ICRC head nurse at Netland.

After surgery, the patients are then transferred to a post- operative and rehabilitation centre where an ICRC expatriate physiotherapist works with patients to help them cope without the lost limbs, O’Connor told IPS.

Also, O’Connor says that “during the period from April to June, the five ICRC supported primary health care clinics in Freetown continued delivering basic medical care to the swelling number of displaced and destitute.”

A total of 41,562 patients benefitted from these support services and 815 children were immunised, according to O’Connor.

Since the AFRC was overthrown in February by the Nigerian-led West African Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG), violence against civilians has escalated in the countryside.

Retreating junta troops are reported to be targetting civilians, amputating limbs, burning adults alive and throwing babies into boiling water.

The health centres treating the victims are supplied with basic medicines and surgical equipment to ensure first aid treatment of war injuries, as well as basic health care.

The ICRC also has embarked on a programme of airlifting civilians with war wounds from areas to Freetown, because of rebel ambushes on passenger and military vehicles.

“Between May 25-28, 23 patients were evacuated from the northern provincial towns of Alikalia, Kabala, Masingbi, Magburaka and Makeni, by an ICRC chartered helicopter,” Metzker said.

At the Netland Hospital, there are entire wards occupied by women aged between 50-66 with severed limbs. Another ward had children as young as 10 with deep machete wounds and lacerations.

“My mother and father were hacked to death by rebel forces right in my presence and I was slashed with a machete,” an 11- year-old boy from the northern district of Bombali told IPS.

The exact number of amputees is not yet known countrywide, because some civilians are still trapped in the rural areas, or, are situated in inaccessible military zones.

In some cases, ECOMOG troops have helped to airlift people to Freetown’s main Connaught Hospital. But the influx of wounded people is overstretching the hospital’s facilities.

As a result, more than 200 amputees who were first treated at Connaught have been transferred to a camp at Waterloo, about 30 kilometres east of Freetown. The non-governmental organisation, Handicap International, is working with the amputees at Waterloo, providing artificial limbs and counselling services.

Besides providing direct surgical services for free at Netland Hospital, the ICRC has started a programme to train Sierra Leone doctors in the art of war surgery.

“We deem this appropriate, because as local doctors, these surgeons would compliment our efforts in administering proper treatment to war-wounded civilians,” Metzker says.

ICRC also has started a programme with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and other NGOs, to find quick response strategies to treat those injured in the rebel attacks.

Excerpt: