Sierra Leone heads list of refugee-producing countries

Sierra Leone leads the list of refugee-producing countries in Africa, according to the latest issue of the ‘Fact Sheet’ released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) this month. There are some 410,900 refugees with Sierra Leone as their country of origin, the UNHCR said. The number of Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea and Liberia has remained largely unchanged, some 405,000, despite the siege of Freetown in January. There are approximately 300,000 in Guinea and 105,000 in Liberia, according to the UNHCR. To improve security in refugee camps in Guinea near the border with Sierra Leone, the UNHCR began the transfer on 12 April of around 50,000 Sierra Leonean refugees from vulnerable camps near Gueckedou to sites further from the frontier. By mid-May almost 10,000 refugees had been moved and two sites closed although transfers are affected by poor road conditions and the short supply of trucks. The camps and surrounding villages have been subject to attacks from rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) from neighbouring Sierra Leone, the UNHCR said.