Guinea's development hindered by refugee burden

The large number of refugees in Guinea has placed an enormous burden and severely slowed down the country's development, President Lansana Conte told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday. "The presence of hundreds of thousands of refugees has had serious consequences for Guinea's economy, its environment and its national security," he said. Guinea hosts some 500,000 refugees, 400,000 from Sierra Leone and about 100,000 from Liberia, which amounts to 10 percent of the country's population. "This makes Guinea the country hosting the largest number of refugees in Africa," a UNHCR spokesman in Abidjan told IRIN.