Sierra Leone - [HACU: 10-30.Mar.98]
Sierra Leone - [HACU: 10-30.Mar.98]
UN-HACU
Sierra Leone
10-30 March 1998
Office of the United Nations Humanitarian Co-Ordinator
Security
1. ECOMOG has now deployed large numbers of troops into the interior of
Sierra Leone and has secured all major towns throughout the country with
the exception of Kono and Kailahun. On 22nd March another two battalions
departed the Western peninsula for the Eastern province and large numbers
of troops are currently consolidating their position at Daru (East of
Kenema) to prepare for the assault on Kailahun. Many Junta soldiers have
surrendered to ECOMOG in the past month. These surrenderees are being
registered by ECOMOG troops and in some areas, particularly in the
southeast, they are incarcerated. In other parts of the country they are
allowed to move freely within ECOMOG controlled areas.
2. With the exception of Kambia neither the United Nations nor NGOs have
permitted international staff members to remain overnight in rural parts
of Sierra Leone. Checkpoints established by ECOMOG and the Kamajors on the
main highways in Sierra Leone have resulted in a regular flow of traffic
between Freetown and Kambia but there are still relatively few vehicles on
the road from Freetown to Bo. There are still some dead bodies from
reprisal killings in evidence on the verge of some of the roads.
Political Developments
3. The UN Secretary-General submitted his most recent report on Sierra
Leone to the Security Council on 25th March. The report commends the
diplomacy of ECOWAS and its Committee of Five and highlights the
contribution made by ECOMOG and the Civil Defence Forces in their removal
of the junta. The report proposes that the Office of the UN Special Envoy
be strengthened through the deployment of 10 UN military liaison officers,
2 police advisers and 1 human rights officer subject to the Security
Council's approval. The UN Secretary-General has also established a Trust
Fund for Sierra Leone to finance the immediate requirements of the GOSL,
ECOMOG and the UN peace-building efforts. The British government has
pledged 2 million pounds to this Trust Fund.
Humanitarian Developments
4. The formal lifting of the UN sanctions (except the import of weapons
and the movement of junta associates) and the ECOWAS embargo has led to
the importation of several consignments of fuel and foodstuffs by sea into
Freetown. This has caused the price of basic commodities to plummet
helping to alleviate the humanitarian plight of the civilian population.
For example, the cost of diesel in Freetown has fallen from 20,000 leones
per gallon at the beginning of February to its pre-coup level of 3,000
leones per gallon.
5. Although the main highways in Sierra Leone are deemed too insecure for
the safe passage of international UN and NGO personnel, commercial
transporters have taken advantage or reduced fuel prices to deliver rice
and other foodstuffs to the urban centres of Bo, Kenema and Makeni.
Markets in these areas are thriving and food prices have fallen to
pre-coup levels. International staff have been monitoring humanitarian
programmes by chartering commercial aircraft for one-day assessments.
6. On 26th March President Kabbah formally launched the United Nations
Flash Appeal for Humanitarian Assistance to Sierra Leone in the presence
of UN agencies and the local media. The Appeal seeks US $ 11.2 million to
meet immediate humanitarian needs in Sierra Leone. Priority interventions
identified in the Appeal include: provision of emergency agricultural
inputs in time for the planting season in May; re-establishment of
essential health services, disease control and immunisation; access to
safe drinking water; child protection and food for malnourished children;
emergency basic education inputs; logistics support to food distribution;
assistance to and repatriation of Liberian refugees; initial support for
the return of the displaced to their areas of origin; co-ordination
support and logistical services.
7. The British Government has provided support to the Government of Sierra
Leone to enable it to re-establish the machinery of Government. Valued at
approximately 1 million pounds, the package includes generators,
computers, public address equipment, vehicles and office furniture.
8. The Government of Sierra Leone has established a National Commission
for Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reconstruction (NCRRR) to act as the
Government focal point for the co-ordination and management of all
humanitarian, rehabilitation, resettlement, reintegration and
reconstruction work in Sierra Leone. The NCRRR, which is attached to the
Office of the President, will not execute or implement programmes itself.
The capacity of the NCRRR is limited at present, as the Commissioner and
the Deputy Commissioner are the only two members of the Commission to have
been appointed. UNDP is providing direct support in the recruitment of the
technical staff of the NCRRR. The first interagency meeting at the new
Commission was held on 30th March.
9. A recent assessment by World Vision in Bonthe district revealed that
the nutritional status of the civilian population was less severe than
previously thought. This is attributable to the healthy harvest in the
district, which escaped misappropriation by armed elements. Brushing for
the next planting season is underway. However, the assessment did reveal
that there was an urgent need for health-related interventions in the area
as the primary health care system was in disarray.
Food Aid
10. WFP, CRS, Care International and World Vision have continued to
transport relief food by sea and by land into Sierra Leone. Since the
ECOMOG intervention 3,600 metric tonnes of food have been shipped to
Freetown by sea and approximately 2,000 metric tonnes by land through the
Guinean border town of Pamelep. The cross-border food aid operation from
Liberia through Bo Waterside has not yet commenced as ECOMOG are not yet
able to provide escorts for relief convoys. The proposed food aid airlift
operation to meet urgent humanitarian needs in Bo and Kenema has been
temporarily suspended as WFP has successfully managed to transport relief
food by road to these areas through Kambia. WFP and food supply NGOs have
also moved modest quantities of food commodities to Makeni.
11. In Freetown ICRC has completed the first monthly food distribution to
registered Liberian refugees, 8,000 beneficiaries in more than 50
institutions and 8,650 individuals in central Freetown whose houses have
been burnt or destroyed. The ICRC is co-operating closely with the Sierra
Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS), whose volunteers are instrumental in
carrying out relief distributions and monitoring.
12. ADRA and the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO) have
completed a distribution to 9,800 beneficiaries in Waterloo and Grafton
camps in Freetown. ACF will open wet feeding canteens (with a capacity of
1,000 per day) in the 6 most vulnerable areas of Freetown in April 1998.
The target groups for these centres are children under the age of five,
the elderly, and the disabled and lactating mothers. The period of
intervention for the Wet Feeding Programme is two months. CRS is
supporting youth centres and Care has supported Food for Work activities
equivalent to at least 36,000 workdays thus far.
13. In rural areas the food aid regional technical committees have
identified estimated vulnerable caseloads of 8,000 in Bo and 12,000 in
Kenema. Food distributions to these groups will commence in the near
future. In Makeni distributions to 9,600 beneficiaries of the Vulnerable
Group Feeding Programme started on 30th March. 11 metric tonnes of rice
donated by the British Government will only be distributed to institutions
in Bo, Kenema and Makeni under the auspices of the technical committees in
these areas. ACF has reactivated its therapeutic feeding centres in Bo and
Makeni and Merlin in Kenema. There is an urgent need for Food for Work
projects to repair the road between Bo and Pujehun.
Health
14. During the next three months UNICEF, in conjunction with the Ministry
of Health, has decided to revitalise 10 Peripheral Health Units on the
Western peninsula outside the immediate environs of Freetown. This
intervention will complement the activities of ICRC and MSF who are
jointly supporting 10 clinics in central Freetown. UNICEF is also planning
a mass immunisation campaign in Freetown targeting 100,000 children under
the age of five and 50,000 women.
15. In Bo and Pujehun districts MSF continues to support a total of 12
clinics and 2 hospitals through the provision of drugs and food. In Kenema
a mass immunisation campaign is being planned, as the cold chain has been
broken and 8 measles cases have recently been identified.
16. Assessments of water conditions in Bo, Kenema and Makeni have revealed
that main reason for the intermittent urban water supply in these areas is
a shortage of fuel to operate the National Power Authority's generators.
It is hoped that the fuel, which has recently arrived in Freetown, will be
dispersed to rural areas in the near future. There is also a real need for
chlorine to disinfect contaminated wells in these areas as most aid
agencies lost their chlorine stocks during the period of the ECOMOG
intervention. For example, in Makeni 1500 kg of chlorine owned by ICRC was
tipped onto the ground by looters wanting to abduct the containers for the
storage and transport of fuel.
17. Sanitation in all these areas is poor and there is a need for shovels,
wheelbarrows, pickaxes and containers to dispose of the waste. However,
significant progress has been made by aid agencies with regard to the
exhumation and reburial of hundreds of civilians originally buried in mass
graves in Bo and Kenema.
18. The assessment of the water and sanitation needs in Lungi conducted by
UNICEF and Oxfam has been completed. UNICEF has agreed to construct 15 new
wells, 500 new latrines and to rehabilitate 29 old wells. The facilities
will service a basic catchment population of 35,000.
Child Protection
19. Child protection agencies have held several discussions with ECOMOG
and the Government of Sierra Leone on the issue of the release of children
held in detention and the need to protect these children from mob justice.
In spite of these discussions ICRC has had difficulties securing the
release of 8 children detained in Pademba road prison in Freetown.
20. The family-tracing programme has also suffered some severe setbacks
following the recent ECOMOG intervention. Although ADRA and KDDO have some
success in reunifying small numbers of children in Kambia and Kenema with
their families, all family tracing activities in Bo have come to
standstill. This is because the offices of Christian Brothers, the lead
agency for family tracing activities in Bo, were burnt and all tracing and
reunification data destroyed.
21. On 25th March 35 Civil Defence Unit (CDU) leaders in Freetown attended
a one-day workshop, sponsored by UNICEF and CAW, on the need to protect
children associated with fighting forces. Representatives from the
Ministry of Social Welfare, Children and Gender Affairs, the Police and FM
98.1, the prop-democracy radio station, were also present. At the end of
the workshop the CDU leaders agreed to work with child protection agencies
to form child abuse committees within each unit. These units will help to
ensure that children's rights are respected irrespective of whether they
are combatants or non-combatant.
Refugees
22. Sierra Leoneans from Kono and Kailahun have continued to cross into
Liberia and Guinea due to the depredations of Junta forces in these areas.
It is estimated that 30,000 Sierra Leonean refugees have moved into Vahun
in Upper Lofa in Liberia but the new caseload in Gueckedou in Guinea has
not yet been registered. UNHCR has also facilitated the return of 3,500
Sierra Leonean refugees from Conakry to Sierra Leone.
Abidjan, 3 April 1998, 18:30 gmt
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