WFP delivers food to the Parrot's Beak

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday delivered food to two refugee camps in the Parrot's Beak region of southwestern Guinea.

The area had had no food deliveries since October.

WFP Spokesman Ramin Rafirasme told IRIN on Thursday that 2,000 rations of high-energy biscuits destined for undernourished children and pregnant women were delivered to camps at Colomba and Koundoulingo, near the Sierra Leone border. Rafirasme said three bridges needed to be repaired so that food could be delivered to other parts of the Parrot's Beak, a thumb of Guinean soil that juts into Sierra Leone. The repairs are expected to be completed by Monday, in which case food would be distributed on Monday or Tuesday to the estimated 140,000 refugees in the Parrot's Beak.

For weeks the Parrot's Beak had been isolated by fighting there and in the nearby town of Guekedou, between Guinean forces and armed dissidents.

Rafirasme said food was also delivered on Wednesday to some 14,000 refugees who are currently at a transit point in Katkama, north of Guekedou, pending their relocation to Albadaria, in central Guinea. The refugees had walked to Katkama from the Parrot's Beak.

UNHCR has already relocated some 10,000 refugees to Albadaria, where they receive a hot meal upon arrival, and enough food for about one month.

WFP says it plans to help 250,000 refugees in Guinea this year. It is also assisting 150,000 IDPs - the more vulnerable among some 200,000 Guineans displaced by the fighting in the southwest. "Our resources allow us to cover refugees and IDPs for just over one month," Rafirsame told IRIN. WFP is counting, he said, on a continuation of donor support for a food pipeline for the refugees and IDPs for the rest of the year.