Four areas declared safe for resettlement

The government has declared Freetown, Port Loko and the districts of Kenema and Pujehun safe for returning IDPs’, WFP said in its country situation report of 2-9 January. The agency said it would continue helping these IDP’s for the next four months “after which food aid will be eliminated”.

About half the 57,000 IDPs in camps in Sierra Leone’s Western area are from these districts. WFP said it would continue to provide food for work and food for agriculture programmes in the war-affected communities of the country.

WFP has finished distributing 225 mt of food to 15,998 returning refugees from Guinea, as part of an ongoing effort with the UNHCR to resettle them within host communities, the food agency said. UNHCR has helped over 3,000 returning refugees return to Lungi (near Freetown) from Guinea.

In southern Sierra Leone, WFP has decided to move its sub-office from Niti to Moyamba so as to cut transport costs and help meet the growing demand for food aid in the area, it said. The sub-office will serve all school feeding programmes in Moyamba and provide food for 18,000 IDPs in villages surrounding the town of Mile 91.

WFP has decided to begin emergency school feeding in 41 schools in Kenema District, “which is likely to keep school attendance consistent”, the agency said.

It said that with the reopening of roads between Kenema and RUF areas announced last week, there had been a new influx of civilians and an increase in school admissions.