UN and European officials expected

The UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Carolyn McAskie, was expected to arrive in Conakry late on Tuesday at the start of a nine-day regional tour. British Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short and her French counterpart, Charles Josselin, were also due to arrive in the Guinean capital on Tuesday. During her two-day visit to Guinea, McAskie will meet government ministers and other officials, UN and NGO representatives and members of the diplomatic corps, Madleine Maka, information officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told IRIN on Tuesday from Conakry. Her agenda includes visits to Kissidougou and Guekedou in southern Guinea to assess the situation of refugees there. McAskie will also visit Sierra Leone and Liberia during her 17-25 April tour. Short and Josselin are in Guinea to gain a “first hand briefing on the situation there”, British Ambassador Alan Burner told IRIN from the Senegalese capital, Dakar. The two ministers are scheduled to meet Guinea’s president Lansana Conte on Wednesday, visit refugee camps and meet agencies working on the ground. They leave for Sierra Leone on Wednesday afternoon.