WFP delivers food to some 2,700 Liberian refugees

Some 2,700 Liberian refugees in N’Zerekore, 800 km southeast of Conakry, have received food aid from the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN agency reported. It said 250 unaccompanied children were among the beneficiaries. WFP recently opened a branch office with storage facilities in N’Zerekore, to speed up aid to refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). However, it said, all the refugees “should soon be relocated” to a new camp in Kola, 35 km north of N’Zerekore, because the security situation in N’Zerekore is still fragile. Another 60,000 - mostly Sierra Leonean - refugees in Albadaria, 200 km north of Guekedou, are receiving WFP food aid. Their relocation from southern Guinea’s volatile Parrot’s Beak began in April. The Beak is a thumb of territory that juts into rebel-held eastern Sierra Leone. WFP is giving food aid to at least 72,000 Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees in Guinea. It is also in the process of registering IDPs in the Dabola region, some 450 km northeast of Conakry. The agency estimates there are 190,000 IDPs in Guinea.