In a new influx, 4,000 Liberian refugees arrive in Guinea - UN agency
Fighting between government and rebel forces in Liberia continues to drive people across borders and into neighbouring countries, with some 4,000 refugees arriving this week in Guinea, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.
In a new influx, 4,000 Liberian refugees arrive in Guinea - UN agency
Fighting between government and rebel forces in Liberia continues to drive people across borders and into neighbouring countries, with some 4,000 refugees arriving this week in Guinea, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.
A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the new arrivals, from Liberia's strife-torn Gbarnga region, would be transferred to a new transit centre at Nonah from Yomou Prefecture, where they had been registered and given emergency food rations of high protein biscuits and hot meals.
Although obviously exhausted and traumatized by their ordeal, the new arrivals - many of whom arrived with no belongings - were generally in satisfactory health condition, spokesman Ron Redmond told a press briefing in Geneva.
While the UN agency has reached an agreement to set up a new site for up to 13,500 refugees at Lainé, it will still be at least a month before the first transit shelters are ready and two months before the establishment of the camp, Mr. Redmond said.
In the meantime, UNHCR's partner, GTZ, has started erecting additional tents at the Nonah transit centre, where the refugees from Gbarnga will stay until the new site at Lainé is ready. Water and sanitation systems are also being extended.
Mr. Redmond said newly arrived refugees estimated there could be another 6,000 to 10,000 Liberians heading to the border from the Gbarnga area, which has been the scene of new clashes in recent weeks.