UNHCR office destroyed in fighting in Gueckedou

UNHCR said on Thursday that a humanitarian catastrophe was looming in Guinea and reported that its branch office in the southern town of Guekedou was destroyed during fighting between government troops and rebels. The refugee agency said its officials were trying to determine the status of UNHCR local staff in the town, which rebels attacked on Wednesday morning.

There were no international UNHCR workers in Guekedou. Initial reports received on Thursday indicated the UNHCR office was burned during the fighting and eight vehicles were destroyed. Unconfirmed reports said hundreds of civilians were killed in the town of 31,000 people.

“UNHCR and the government of Guinea have been warning for months that the international community must take urgent action to secure this volatile border region,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said. “We are now on the verge of a major humanitarian catastrophe in which both refugees and tens of thousands of local residents may be displaced within Guinea itself.”
Guinea is host to Africa’s second-largest refugee population, including 130,000 Liberians and 330,000 Sierra Leoneans.

Ogata said: “The international community must take concrete measures now, including support for the local law enforcement capacity in insecure border areas – especially in and around refugee sites. As a humanitarian organization, UNHCR can only do its job if the security conditions are in place. Right now, they are not.”

UN security reports indicate that thousands of Guinean civilians have fled Guekedou over the past two days, heading north toward Kissidougou. UNHCR fears that some of the roughly 200,000 refugees in border camps in the Guekedou area are also joining the exodus.