Sierra Leone: Large group of refugees set to return from Guinea via land route

The first convoy of refugees to head back to Sierra Leone by a newly opened land route from Guinea is expected to arrive in their home country on Saturday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today.

The Sierra Leonean refugees – 500 people from 151 families – left the Boreah camp in

Guinea on Thursday. They will be met tomorrow at the Sierra Leone-Guinea border by UNHCR staff and government representatives and overnight in a camp for internally displaced people, where they will undergo medical and security screening. The last leg of their journey, to the districts of Kailahun and Kono formerly controlled by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), will take place on Sunday.

The overland return – organized by UNHCR – follows a recent agreement between Guinea and the UN agency to open four border crossings for repatriation. Until now, returning refugees had to travel by road from their camps to the Guinea capital, Conakry, and then by boat to Sierra Leone, before another road trip to their eventual destination.

UNHCR plans twice-weekly road convoys of up to 1,000 returnees. A further 500 refugees will continue to return each week by sea. Some 15,000 refugees currently in camps in Guinea have registered their desire to return to Sierra Leone with the agency.

Meanwhile, students from five schools in the town of Makeni in Sierra Leone’s north took part in a special seminar yesterday focusing on “Equal Rights for Men and Women Means a Better Society.”

Organized by the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and the Sierra Leone Center for Democracy and Human Rights, the seminar featured performances by actors, as well as discussions led by religious leaders and police on a wide range of issues related to human rights, the rule of law and the need for mutual respect to sustain peace and reconciliation.