New refugee camp opened in Kenema

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) opened a new refugee camp with a capacity of 10,000 people near Tobanda village, Kenema District on Monday. To be managed by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Tobanda is the eighth camp established by UNHCR in Sierra Leone. The others are Largo, Bandajuma, Gerihun, Gondama, Jembe, Jimmi Bagbo and Taiama; which together currently host at least 55,000 refugees.

UNHCR, in a weekly update for 25 - 31 March, reported that the first batch of 247 refugees, mostly women and children, was received at the camp by representatives of its Kenema office, Small Bo Chiefdom and LWF, MSF-France and NaCSA. "The refugees who received non-food items on arrival including buckets, mats, blankets and kitchen sets, were welcomed to Sierra Leone and encouraged to be law abiding," UNHCR said.

Border crossing points, UNHCR said, like Jendema, Gbaa and Dar Es Salaam on the Zimmi axis continued to receive trickles of new arrivals. In Zimmi, 347 refugees were moved to the Kenema way stations as at 28 March, however there were 1,359 refugees at the station. In the Kailahun axis, 105 new Liberian refugees arrived in the reporting period. Relocation of refugees was ongoing, UNHCR said.

"Following the exhaustion of capacity at Largo and Gondama camps last week, movement of refugee convoys from the entry points was directed exclusively to the Dauda and Blama way stations. From there, refugees will be moved to Tobanda," UNHCR said. Two convoys, it added, comprising 525 returnees passed through Dauda and Blama way stations to Kailahun and Kenema districts while air repatriation from Liberia resumed on Monday.

UNHCR also said six scholarships would be granted this year to refugee students in Sierra Leone under the "Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Fund" known as DAFI Scholarship Programme.

"In Sierra Leone, among the refugees in the camps, there are 158 high school graduates and 81 university students requesting for support to continue their education. [About] 48 percent of the total camp population is below 18 years old and 30 percent are between 5 and 18 years," UNHCR said. "Most of the young refugees were attending school before the outbreak of fighting in their country and their interest in educational services is still a high priority. In addition to that more students are graduating from Senior Secondary schools this year."