In this country that holds 30 percent of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the primary ore in aluminium, most people live hand-to-mouth; only about 19 percent of the population have access to proper sanitation facilities; malnutrition is widespread.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.
Some facts about Guinea:
• At the peak of regional conflicts in the 1990s Guinea housed some 800,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia; today some 25,000 refugees remain in Guinea, including from Côte d’Ivoire
• Guinea has borders with Côte d’Ivoire (instability and political impasse since a 2002 rebellion), Guinea-Bissau (narcotics-trafficking hub struggling to emerge from a history of coups, counter-coups, civil war and political assassinations), Liberia (civil war 1989-2003), Mali, Senegal (attacks by armed groups on civilians and sporadic fighting in southern Casamance region) and Sierra Leone (civil war 1991-2002)
• Since independence in 1958 Guinea has not had a peaceful transition of power
• Population: 9.8 million; average population growth rate 2.6 percent from 1990 to 2007
• 70 percent of population living under the poverty threshold of US$1.25 per day, as of 2005
• Chronic malnutrition has increased by 50 percent in the past five years
• Some 6.4 percent of the capital Conakry’s estimated 1.6 million people lack access to adequate food to meet their daily needs
• Polio-free from 2004 to 2008, Guinea recorded at least 16 cases of polio in 2009
Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN |
Many Guineans lack access to safe drinking water (file photo) |
• Nearly half the population has no access to safe drinking water
• Cholera, yellow fever and seasonal flooding regularly spark humanitarian emergencies, straining already limited national capacity to cope
• In the UN Human Development Index Guinea ranks 170 of 182 countries
• 150 in 1,000 children are likely to die before fifth birthday
• 93 in 1,000 infants are likely to die before age one
• 980 women die annually from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 births
• An estimated 1.6 percent of the population infected with HIV
• 0.1 physicians per 1,000 people as of 2004
• Illiteracy rate (age 15 and above) 70.5 percent
• Life expectancy 55 years
Sources: UN Children’s Fund, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Bank, UN Human Development Index 2009 report
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