Spanish Red Cross sending supplies for IDPs

A shipment of relief supplies from the Spanish Red Cross (CRE) is scheduled to leave the port of Valencia on Saturday for Sierra Leone, Pilar Sorcen of the CRE's Department of Communication told IRIN on Thursday. The shipment is meant for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the West African country, the CRE said. It includes 1,993 fifteen- and twenty-litre containers of water, 2,500 blankets and 1,400 sheets of plastic, according to a press communique issued by the CRE. The resumption of hostilities in Sierra Leone since the abduction of UN peacekeepers in May has displaced about 100,000 people in the north and northeast of the country, the CRE said. This has led the Red Cross to restructure its activities with a view to improving the living conditions of the IDPs, many of whom live in temporary camps that are already crowded, it added.