Many refugees from Sierra Leone, few from Liberia

Guinea said on Wednesday it had registered no significant movement of refugees into its territory as a result of fighting in the Liberian border town on Voinjama between government troops and dissidents. However, the chairman of Guinea’s National Bureau for the Coordination of Refugees, Alhousseine Thiam, told IRIN on Wednesday that the country had received 5,000 Sierra Leonean refugees near Forecariah, about 60 km southeast of Conakry, since RUF leader Foday Sankoh’s arrest in mid-May. The refugees came from Kambia, on the Sierra Leonean border, and had fled fighting between Sierra Leonean government troops and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. They are camped at Kalako, in Forecariah, Thiam said. He said the refugees included former RUF and pro-government militia, who were disarmed before being allowed in the camp. There were also a number of women and children, none of whom were mutilated, unlike some earlier refugees, Thiam added. Another 100 refugees have been registered in the eastern Guinean border town of Gueckedou since June.