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A first group of 186 Guinea Bissau refugees left Dakar on Monday for their home country on board the UNHCR-chartered Cape Verdian motor vessel Djon Dade, the UN agency reported.
The returnees were escorted by a UNHCR official, a doctor, a nurse and others. The British aid group OXFAM provided three hot meals a person for the 24-hour journey home and, before boarding the ship, each received a survival pack, a gift from the Senegalese government, and a stipend from the UNHCR.
"The success of this operation is due to the joint efforts of the two governments - Senegalese and Guinea Bissau - the UNHCR as well as the number of Senegalese well-wishers who have given aid spontaneously for almost one year," Osseni Fassassi, UNHCR regional delegate in Dakar, said.
Hundreds of people died in Guinea Bissau's nine-month civil war which ended on 7 May. Some 400,000 others were internally displaced and 5,000 sought refuge in other countries, including 900 in Senegal, 1,800 in Guinea, 720 in The Gambia and 600 in Cape Verde.
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