Rain, bad roads delay transfer of Sierra Leonean refugees

The transfer of Sierra Leonean refugees from border zones to safer areas within the region of Guekedou in southern Guinea has been suspended since 5 July because of heavy rains and poor roads, UNHCR announced on Friday. The operation, aimed at relocating some 50,000 refugees from six camps that had been attacked by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, began on 12 April. At its suspension on 5 July, about 14,000 had been moved to Katkama, some 70 km from the border. "This year the rainy season began very early, in May, and that is the main reason for the suspension of the operation," the UNHCR delegate in Guinea, Chris Ache, said. The rain, coupled with the poor state of the roads, prevented many convoys from going to the refugee camps because the narrow roads were blocked by trucks stranded in the mud, he said. Ache said UNHCR decided to suspend the relocations until around 1 October since the heart of the rainy season, which is extremely heavy in that part of Guinea, was just about two weeks away. Guinea hosts the largest number of refugees in Africa - about half a million - including some 366,000 Sierra Leoneans and about 133,000 Liberians, according to UNHCR.