Thousands of refugees trek to Tarvey

At least 7,000 Sierra Leonean refugees are still on a five-day trek from Kolahun in Liberia's upper Lofa to Tarvey in lower Lofa, MSF said on Wednesday. The refugees told the UNHCR they were fleeing constant harassment by Liberian security forces. However, MSF programme director for Liberia in Paris Guillaume Le-Gallais told IRIN on Thursday that there were still 600 of the most vulnerable refugees in Kolahun. "They did not leave because they were unable to do so," he said. Some 16,000 Sierra Leoneans had been living in a refugee camp in Kolahun since February 1998, half of whom reached Tarvey in August, MSF said, following dissident activity in the area. MSF has established a presence in Gelena village, located in the bush between Kolahun and Tarvey, to provide medical care, food and drinking water for refugees passing through. "We are unable to reach Gelena by road," Le-Gallais said, "but we try to go there every day by helicopter." Recent rains have worsened road conditions. Le-Gallais said that MSF also makes a weekly helicopter flight to Kolahun where it helps the few remaining refugees. The transit camp in Tarvey is overcrowded, MSF said, which poses a risk of an outbreak of epidemics such as cholera. Already, MSF teams in Tarvey have reported cases of bloody diarrhoea. The UNHCR's deputy representative in Monrovia, James Lynch, said on Wednesday that the agency had sent the first convoy of 10 trucks to Tarvey village to transport the first group of refugees to Sinje, Cape Mount County, after receiving government clearance. Sinje camp, which is more accessible from Monrovia, hosts 5,000 Sierra Leonean refugees but is able to hold an additional 15,000 to 20,000, according to UNHCR.