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The top UN official in Sierra Leone appealed on Monday for humanitarian and development aid to help the government restore its authority nationwide, reintegrate former combatants, and resettle returning refugees and displaced people.
Addressing representatives from donor countries who are on a week-long fact-finding visit to Sierra Leone, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Oluyemi Adeniji, said that the Sierra Leonean government needed help to restore its authority across the country.
"The government needs to be assisted to extend its authority and extend it fast," Adeniji told donors in the capital, Freetown. He also appealed for humanitarian assistance for returning refugees, internally displaced people and local communities affected by the decade-long conflict, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported. He said he hoped donors would pay "considerable attention" to the reintegration of former fighters into society.
The 22 donor representatives are from Canada, the European Community Humanitarian Office, the European Union, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. During their visit they will be looking at humanitarian and post-war recovery needs in Sierra Leone, for which the United Nations launched a consolidated interagency appeal of US $88.6 million in November 2001.
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