A new humanitarian report

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)in Guinea Bissau said in a report this week that at least four people had been injured landmine accidents and by unexploded ordnance (UXOs) since the beginning of the month. The report gave a detailed breakdown of humanitarian progress since Brigadier Ansumane Mane, the leader of an army rebellion, and President Joao Bernardo Vieira, signed a peace treaty at the end of the year. It said the border area near the separatist Senegalese province of Casamance remained the most tense area of the country. It said most residents who had fled the capital Bissau during fighting between the government and army rebels last year had now returned home. Several thousand internally displaced people around the country were likely to settle in the areas to which they fled. But the airport and banking facilites remained closed thus impeding the resumption of normal economic activity and hampering relief operations.