The war in Sierra Leone has cost Guinea close to have a billion US dollars since it started in 1991, government officials in Guinea told a donor mission that visited the country last week, according to the head of the team.
That estimate includes the cost of hosting over 300,000 refugees and contributing to the Economic Community of West African States Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) peacekeepers, the UN Deputy Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Carolyn McAskie told IRIN.
In conversations with her mission, which included representatives of donor countries, Guinean officials drew attention to the fact that when there is a crisis, assistance needed to be given to both refugee-producing and host countries.
Before going to Guinea, the mission also travelled to Sierra Leone.
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