Census of people whose limbs were amputated

A census of people who suffered limb amputations during Sierra Leone's civil conflict is now taking place to determine their health needs, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Freetown (ICRC) told IRIN on Wednesday.

"The government has called on all people to present themselves across the country," Paul Fruh, dissemination delegate for the ICRC said. "Once the results of the census are known, the ICRC will address the priority issue of assessing numbers of people who need emergency surgery to clean up wounds before artificial limbs can be fitted."

The ICRC will soon send a surgical team to Kenema, some 190 km east of Freetown, to assess and deal with urgent surgical needs there. Discussions are taking place between the ICRC and the government over establishing a surgical centre at an existing health clinic in Goderich in Freetown's West End. It is hoped that the centre will become a teaching facility at some point, Fruh said.

"As well as knowing the numbers affected, we also have to prepare people psychologically for the fitting of limbs, particularly in the case of children," Fruh said. "For them it is a continuous process as limbs have to be replaced every year."

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has been accused of amputating the limbs of civilians to terrorise the population during the conflict. The RUF has denied this.

Thousands of people are thought to have lost one or more limbs during the civil war, Reuters said. No official figure has been established as government and aid workers were until recently excluded from large areas of the country under rebel control.

The RUF and the government signed a peace deal in Lome on 7 July.

Hundreds of Nigerians leave

Some 420 Nigerians affected by the war have left Sierra Leone, the Nigerian High Commission in Freetown told IRIN on Wednesday.

"The initial projection was 750, but we think that some people changed their minds after the signing of the peace treaty," a High Commission source said. Some of those affected by the conflict lost property and businesses, he added.

The Nigerians left Sierra Leone on Tuesday by ship.

Boat sinks leaving many dead

Around 30 people are thought to have died after a crowded boat was caught in a storm and capsized off the Sierra Leone coast, Reuters reported the police as saying on Wednesday.

Some 15 people, including the crew, survived Monday's accident off the port of Pepel, about 25 km northeast of Freetown, Reuters reported.