Fighting intensified in early December, further affecting access to a string of camps housing more than 300,000 refugees in the Gu ck dou-Kissidougou area. The refugees were exhausted, some having walked more than 100 kms with little or no food. Many are in urgent need of medical assistance. Massakoundou, a camp where local authorities have transferred thousands of refugees who had converged on the town of Kissidougou, is now jammed with some 35,000 refugees. Massakoundou was designed for 20,000 people and the overcrowding is dangerously stretching its infrastructure.
More trucks are on the way.
On the return trip to Conakry, the trucks are being used to carry vulnerable refugees who want to go to the capital and then on to Sierra Leone. Medical supplies have been flown to Kissidougou and clinics will be opened in different locations, including Massakoundou. The first ferry left Conakry on Wednesday with 324 voluntary returnees. The Sierra Leone Embassy, meanwhile, continues operating its own ship as well. The latest ferried nearly 3,000 people to Freetown on Tuesday.