The United Nations World Food Programme said today that it is concerned by the deteriorating condition of refugees fleeing the fighting in Eastern Sierra Leone. Refugees, arriving by the hundreds every day in Gueckedou in South Western Guinea, are suffering from exhaustion, diseases and malnutrition. Since early March, more than 160,000 Sierra Leoneans crossed the Guinean border.
Children are the worst affected.
Health workers are attributing these deaths to the time spent by the refugees in the bush hiding from armed militiamen. Many refugees lived several weeks without shelter in the bush eating leaves, berries and roots. The shortage of adequate shelter, clean water and sanitation in the camps is also responsible for the poor health of many Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea. More than 1,600 children have been admitted in health clinics and therapeutic feeding centres in the last two months and this number is rising sharply. May. WFP has provided to therapeutic feeding centres more than 12 metric tons of high protein food, enough to feed 1,600 children for one month.