Influx of returnees could lead to "new crisis", MSF says

An ongoing influx of refugees returning from Guinea threatens to trigger a new emergency in and around Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned.

While "a fragile calm exists" with the demobilisation and disarmament of
fighters who were involved in Sierra Leone's civil war, the return of
ex-refugees to their homes is giving rise to the possibility of a new
crisis, MSF said on Monday. Medical needs in the areas currently or formerly
controlled by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels are considered
"enormous", it said.

According to MSF, some of those areas had been without support for up to
three years. "Nine years of ongoing civil war have almost totally destroyed
the health care system in Sierra Leone," MSF noted. "The vaccination rate is
low and epidemics of malaria, yellow fever, lassa fever, cholera and measles
have broken out in recent years. The secondary health care is virtually
non-existent."

The civil war in Sierra Leone has been one of the most violent in Africa,
claiming over 50,000 lives and displacing 2.5 million people - half the
population, MSF said. Many of the people who left Sierra Leone found refuge
in neighbouring countries such as Guinea. Since September 2000, more than
50,000 refugees have returned to Sierra Leone from Guinea, but an estimated
85,000 remain there, MSF said. Many returnees have now become internally
displaced persons (IDPs), as their homes are still unsafe.