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Refugees begin trip home

    ABIDJAN
    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.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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