Racing against time, rain and insecurity in Guinea

The World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking additional funds for relocated refugees and returnees in Guinea and Sierra Leone, WFP spokesman Ramin Rafirasme told IRIN on Monday. Rafirasme said WFP would need an extra US $10 million to US $15 million this year for the Mano River countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). He said an appeal to this effect was made on Sunday by the agency’s director for Africa, Manuel da Silva. Da Silva left Guinea on Monday after a three-day visit. WFP’s food pipeline for the three countries is secure up to the end of June, said Rafirasme, who stated that his agency was “extremely grateful for the response from the international community since January,” when the refugee crisis in Guinea deteriorated following fighting between insurgents and government forces in southern Guinea. “The donor countries have been very sensitive,” he said, “providing us with what we need.” However, the need to relocate tens of thousands of refugees from the area around Gueckedou and the nearby ‘Parrot’s Beak’, a tongue of Guinean territory that juts into Sierra Leone, has greatly modified the situation. Most of the refugees had lived there for years and were able to cater for some of their needs. Transferred to new camps, they no longer have any coping mechanisms, and are thus totally dependent on food aid, which increases the quantity of supplies relief agencies need to provide for them, Rafirasme explained. Refugees who opt for voluntary repatriation to Sierra Leone, as thousands have already done this year, also need support. Da Silva met senior government officials in Conakry before travelling on Sunday to Kissidougou, 600 km from Conakry, where he had a meeting with representatives of sister UN agencies, UNHCR and UNICEF, and implementing partners such as French NGOs Premiere Urgence and Action contre la Faim, and GTZ of Germany. He also met local authorities and visited a camp at Massakoundou, from where refugees are being relocated to Albadaria, some 75 km north of Kissidougou. Rafirasme said the situation in the Parrot’s Beak was very fragile, with tens of thousands of people trapped there. He added that it was not clear to the United Nations how many refugees were still in that area and how many of them were vulnerable. “When areas are accessible, we are feeding 150,000 refugees and 150,000 Guineans,” Rafirasme told IRIN. The main concerns now for WFP, he said, are the security situation in the Beak and adjoining areas and logistics, given the fact that roads become impassable during the rainy season, expected to begin in earnest around June. When it does, trucking in food from Conakry would be all but impossible so WFP is trying to stock food in Kissidougou before then. In the meantime, the agency would be “very happy if donors continue to be as sensitive as they have been so far”, Rafirasme said.