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US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday that his government had given an additional US $5 million in emergency aid to refugees and internally displaced persons in Guinea.
Of this, $3.5 million will support the UNHCR’s ongoing relocation of
refugees to safe sites within Guinea, Boucher said. He added that $1.25 million would enable the World Food Programme to feed the refugees and the remaining $250,000 would go to the International Organization for Migration to help in the voluntary repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees.
The US has taken this action, he said, because it remains “gravely concerned” about the refugees and IDPs in areas cut off from humanitarian assistance.
“We call on all regional leaders to take every action to stop the cross-border attacks that have endangered refugees and civilian populations in Guinea,” Boucher said.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is due to deploy some 1,676 troops along the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to curb the cross-border attacks.
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