POPULATION-SIERRA LEONE: People Flee to Guinea to Escape Rebels

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, May 12 1998 (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leone residents in the east of the country are reportedly on the run into neighbouring Guinea to escape fighting between rebels of the ousted military junta and the West African Peacekeeping troops (ECOMOG).

An estimated 150,000 villagers from the diamond-rich eastern district of Kono have crossed the border, as ECOMOG and former junta forces fight for control of the area.

The villagers, who walk hundreds of kilometres through the bush, have entered Guinea’s eastern forest regional towns of Guekedou, Kissidougou and Macenta.

According to aid agencies, their living conditions are appalling, and the Guinean authorities have found it hard to cope with the massive influx.

“Each day we receive more than 100 refugees of all ages and sexes and they sport bullet wounds, and swollen legs as a result of the long trek in the bushes; they look sick and hungry,” says Ibrahim Kamara, who has been seeking ways to assist the villagers.

“A woman in labour had no money to go to hospital, so we the youth, moved around begging to raise funds for her; this is the desperation of the situation,” says the youth who is now in Freetown.

Paramount Chief Abu Kongonba, who is a member of parliament and a traditional leader from Kono, at the weekend, toured the Guinean towns where people who have fled the area are camped.

“It is an eyesore to see pregnant and nursing mothers sleeping in open playgrounds with no blankets and being exposed to all sorts of diseases,” Kongonba says.

He adds that the children, in particular, are malnourished and urgently need medical attention, supplementary food and proper shelter.

“I have urged the government to start the repatriation of these refugees before the rainy season when famine and epidemics may kill the lot of them,” the traditional leader says.

Guinea’s Interior Minister and other government officials also went to the border last week to see where the Sierra Leoneans are settling, and they described the situation as “desperate and requiring urgent attention”.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has stepped in to provide relief supplies to the refugees. WFP’s regional manager, Paul Harris, says the agency has transported 3000 tonnes of food to the Guekedou area.

Harris says many of the people who arrive in Guinea from Kono suffer from dysentry, respiratory diseases and are seriously malnourished. “The lot of them have been surviving on roots and tubers in the bushes and they look very hungry and sick”.

“We have large amounts of food waiting in Monrovia and Abidjan for transportation to the refugees,” Harris says, adding that, “we intend to complete the exercise before the rainy season starts, which would be a pretty rough period for the refugees”.

Harris says that WFP in collaboration with its partners is working on modalities to move the refugees to better camp dwellings.

Other residents from Kono have moved to the capital Freetown following a spate of murders, robberies, rapes and other atrocities by remnants of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), which was ousted in February.

Remnants of the junta then retreated to the countryside, but their activities have been concentrated in Kono district where ECOMOG troops, backed by Sierra Leone’s Civil Defence Force, have launched an offensive to flush out the rebels.

Hospitals in Freetown and the northern regional capital of Makeni are filled with people who have lost limbs in the attacks.

Parliamentarians, cabinet ministers and traditional leaders from Kono have set up a Task Force to address the plight of the fleeing civilians from their district.

The Task Force has launched an appeal to members of the public, business people and others to contribute food, clothing and medicines to help alleviate the plight of the refugees who are now scattered in Guinea.