REFUGEES-GUINEA: No Place Like Home

By Saliou Samb Reprint | | Print |

Saliou Samb

NZEREKORE, Southern Guinea, May 27 2003 (IPS) - Sheltered only by tents in the sweltering heat, Maika Kourouma describes life in Laine Refugee Camp as a nightmare.

She claims that snakebites, malaria and prostitution are rampant in the camp, which is located some 1,000 kilometres south of the capital, Conakry. The camp is run by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

In her tent, which she shares with 50 other refugees, her two small girls, all running a high fever, lie on the ground beside her. The atmosphere is morose. ”My two little girls were bitten by snakes and I have not been able to get them medical care,” Kourouma, a refugee from Liberia, told IPS.

”The same thing happened to my daughter and I just don’t know where to turn. Look at her, she’s burning up,” says Mamy Yassa Dionsi, also from Liberia.

A few metres away, another little girl in rags lies motionless on a mat. Her dry lips, her crossed arms and her closed eyes show how malaria has sapped her strength. ”This is our life. We cannot even look after our children when they are sick,” says her father, in tears.

Akeem Kollie, another Liberian, has a wound on his arm. ”A snake bit me. I’ve been trying to get it treated for two weeks, but UNHCR only offers me tablets; paracetamol and chloroquine since I don’t have any money to seek better treatment,” claims Kollie.

The Laine Camp, which was built for 6,000 refugees, now has more than 19,500 refugees, mostly from Liberia.

To the chagrin of the refugees, the rainy season is around the corner, and some of the tents are not properly sealed.

Not even the recent visit by Ruud Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, had relieved the pervasive sadness. ”We’ll do everything we can to get you home as soon as the political and military situation allows it,” he told the refugees.

Lubbers urged the Liberian leader, Charles Taylor to end the suffering of his citizens.

”The refugees’ plight will not improve until peace comes to Liberia. But it now seems that in order to attain it, Taylor must accept that he can no longer solely control his country. That means there needs to be power-sharing between the different political and military forces,” Lubbers declared.

Jean Philippe Ago is one of the few Ivorian refugees at Laine, which was built specially to house Liberians. ”I’ve been living at Laine for four months. Before, I was at Man (in western Cote d’Ivoire), but the war brought me here,” he says.

”All the compatriots I meet complain about the food – the corn semolina – that we’re not used to, distributed by the World Food Programme. It gives us diarrhoea and stomach aches,” he explains.

Aissatou Bamba Traore, another refugee from Cote d’Ivoire, says ”the Ivorians are having problems adapting and are complaining about health conditions in the camps”.

The refugees claim their diet contains neither fish nor meat and that each person receives only a litre of oil per month.

The majority of Ivorian refugees are currently in the Nonon Transit Centre in Yomou, 1,029 kilometres south of Conakry.

Ibrahima Diane, a UNHCR public relations officer at Kissidougou, 601 kilometres southwest of Conakry, says: "To provide medical care for the refugees, UNHCR has set up a system where if a person has a minor illness, he’s taken to a certain health centre. But if he’s seriously ill, he’s taken to the hospital”.

Diane says only a few ”isolated” cases of snakebites and malaria have not been treated medically.

Issiago Toure, a UNHCR protection officer, also disputes the refugees’ claims. ”The new refugees always complain more than the old ones. I know of refugee families who built their own homes out of planks and who lead a much more decent life now than they did when they came here,” he maintains.

”The truth is, those in the camps know the desperate condition they were in when we received them at the border,” says Toure.