MSF concerned over Mile 91 crisis

Medecins Sans Frontieres expressed concern over the deteriorating health and security situation in Mile 91, an area east of Freetown, in a news release issued on Wednesday.

“One of the indicators of the health crisis is the large caseload of over 9,000 people in the first two weeks of July monitored in just two health clinics,” the humanitarian organisation said. It added that there had been an increase in the number of patients with bloody diarrhoea and that many were severely dehydrated.
The spokesman of the UN Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard, reported on Tuesday that poor water and sanitation had led to the deteriorating health situation in the town.

Malnutrition is also a cause for concern. In the last two week, MSF said, one feeding centre has received 500 malnourished children and 170 severely malnourished ones. It said interviews with mothers revealed that the children had become malnourished since arriving in Mile 91.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and CARE - an NGO - are now distributing 700 mt of food in one-month rations, Eckhard said on Tuesday.

Insecurity is still posing a problem and a constraint to providing aid. Mile 91 is on the dividing line between opposing forces and is also close to a Sierra Leone Army base, MSF reported. Fighting in the surrounding area, sometimes between militias linked to the government, threatens people seeking refuge and limits the amount of aid that can be delivered, it added.

Although exact numbers are still uncertain it is estimated that some 67,000 IDPs are in and around Mile 91, according to humanitarian sources.