Minneapolis, February 23, 2001 - The
American Refugee Committee has stepped up its efforts to help relieve the
suffering of thousands of traumatized refugees in Guinea who have been
forced to flee for their lives because of rebel incursions into the West
African country.
"For five months now, these refugees
have been all but forgotten by a world that has seen fit to concentrate
on other matters," said Richard Poole, ARC's European Representative,
who recently returned from Guinea.
ARC is providing health care to Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees who have been relocated from conflict areas in the Forest Region of southwestern Guinea to camps in Kissidougou Prefecture in the center of the country. Earlier, it provided emergency food to refugees who gathered at the Sierra Leonean and Liberian embassies in Conakry, Guinea's capital.
These refugees, who originally fled brutal conflicts in their home countries, have once again been uprooted by the fighting that is spreading to Guinea. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of other refugees remain trapped in the Parrot's Beak area of southwestern Guinea abutting Sierra Leone. Their access to humanitarian aid, food shipments and medical care has been severely limited.
ARC operated programs at camps in the Parrot's Beak area until December 2000, when it was forced to suspend operations because of growing insecurity. It took that step shortly after one of its staff members was killed during the fighting there. ARC then moved its base to Kissidougou.
It now operates a fully functional health post at the Kountaya resettlement camp, including consultation and observation rooms, a maternity area, a pharmacy and a wound dressing room. It has been receiving 1,000 refugees a day. In the coming months, ARC will set up and manage several health posts at refugee relocation sites north of the conflict zone.
ARC is also working to rebuild its income-generation program, which provides small loans to refugees to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency.
"Additional humanitarian assistance is urgently needed, particularly to transport refugees from unsafe areas and provide them with emergency health care," said ARC President and CEO Anthony Kozlowski. "In addition, the United States should lead efforts within the UN Security Council aimed at stopping armed incursions into Guinea."
Background Note: Guinea is host to almost 450,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia, about 180,000 in the Parrot's Beak area, according to estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR is currently using vehicles to help evacuate 1,000 to 1,500 refugees and other displaced people a day from the Parrot's Beak region. Thousands more are fleeing by foot. Since September, more than 30,000 refugees have returned to Sierra Leone.
For more information, contact:
Minneapolis: Suzanne Perry, (612) 607-6481,
or suzannep@archq.org
Conakry: David Williams, ARC Guinea Country Director, or Karen Elshazly,
ARC Director of International Programs, (224) 42-2027
London: Richard Poole, (44 1621) 868821
Note: Richard Poole was ARC's Guinea
Country Director from 1997 until 1999 and visited the country earlier this
month to assess the situation for ARC.
Karen Elshazly is currently visiting Guinea and will return to Minneapolis
on March 1.
Suzanne Perry
American Refugee Committee
430 Oak Grove St., #204
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 607-6481, fax (612) 607-6499
suzannep@archq.org
www.archq.org