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Guinea + 2 more

Refugee crisis in Guinea worsens

The situation in Guinea remains extremely fluid and alarming numbers of refugees are on the move: their humanitarian needs are critical. Fears that Guinea would become the next conflict area have now become a reality, with a dire impact on refugees and the internally displaced. Now that the fighting has spilled over into Guinea one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world is unfolding. Few aid organisations are present as security is a worrying issue.
The brutal internal conflicts that have been taking place in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the past ten years have resulted in some 450,000 people from these two countries seeking refuge in Guinea. These refugees are now on the move again as fighting has spilled over into Guinea itself.

The Red Cross is registering refugees as they arrive in makeshift refugee camps, and accompanying those on the move to safer areas. In the prefecture of N'Zerekore the Red Cross is re-locating 60,000 urban refugees living in border areas to four new campsites. In Gueckedou, a city now one-third destroyed due to escalating attacks, 250,000 refugees are receiving health and food from the Red Cross. In Kissidougou, 80,000 Sierra Leonean refugees are being re-located to 4 new sites in the north of the city. In Albadaria, the Red Cross has taken over full management of the camp which now houses 5,000 refugees with many hundreds more arriving. Newcomers are registered and given any necessary emergency assistance. Near Kissidougou, in the Massakoundou camp, the Red Cross has reopened two health posts, which is providing essential health services to more than 35,000 people.

Many other areas, also holding vast numbers of refugees, are cut off from humanitarian assistance due to security reasons. Although the refugees desperately need aid, especially food, it is thought that distributions in this area could result in placing the refugees in additional danger. Humanitarian agencies consider the only viable option is the eventual transfer of these refugees to safer areas. The number of displaced persons is still increasing, with civilians continuing to evacuate villages in the combat zones. As families become splintered in their flight, a system has been set up to restore ties between family members separated by the conflict, prioritising unaccompanied children.

A major contributing factor to the crisis is the growing suspicion and resentment of the local population directed towards the refugee population. Guinea, one of the poorest countries in the world, has long played host to the largest refugee population in Africa. The burden has caused friction and further strained the economy, and inevitably led many to conclude that the refugees themselves are the source of the problem. The outbreak of fighting and the subsequent violence and destruction has only served to escalate the local population's anti-refugee sentiment. The Red Cross is focussing on diffusing the source of the anti-refugee feeling by using local volunteers to sensitize the local population into creating a more welcoming atmosphere for the refugees themselves.

Catherine Mahoney
Press Office
020 7201 5019