WHO highlights food supply problems

Although some refugees managed to carry some food as they fled fighting around the southwest Guinean town of Guekedou, and a hot meal is provided daily by international NGOs, supplying food to inmates of new refugee camps at Kuntaya and Katkama, north of the town, is a problem, WHO said.

"Getting dry food rations in is becoming urgent," WHO said. Distribution of high protein biscuits for children and adult biscuits at Katkama ended in riot on Saturday "as hungry men overwhelmed women, children and aid workers".

WHO said that the most malnourished were refugees from the so-called Parrot's Beak, an area of Guinean land that protrudes into Sierra Leone, where aid workers have been unable to make food deliveries in five months.

The most vulnerable of the refugees are those weakened by walking, dehydration, anxiety and rampant low grade infections, WHO said. Already high levels of acute respiratory tract infections have been worsened, it added, by dust and seasonal burning. The nights are cold and the lack of money has slowed down the purchase of non-food items such as blankets to replace those blocked by fighting in warehouses in Guekedou.