FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 02/01 - GUINEA (5 February)
Seasonably dry conditions prevail. Reflecting a good harvest in 2000 and a record crop in 1999, the overall food supply situation is satisfactory and markets are generally well supplied, except in the south-east where rebel incursions from Sierra Leone have severely affected agriculture and marketing activities. Recent clashes forced humanitarian agencies to temporarily suspend their operations in Gueckédou and surrounding areas, pulling back staff to Kissidougou, only a week after returning to the area. Consequently, more than 200 000 refugees are once again out of reach. All public institutions such as dispensaries, hospitals, schools and police stations have been closed.
More than 400 000 refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone remain in the country, located mainly in Gueckédou, Forécariah and N'Zérékore areas. Access is very difficult to the Parrot's Beak, a strip of Guinean territory that juts into Sierra Leone near the Liberian border, where around 250 000 people are located (about 180 000 refugees living in scores of camps and some 70 000 internally displaced persons). UNHCR is building camps in Borea and Kuntaya, respectively 60 km and 82 km north of Kissidougou, to relocate refugees from Guekedou and the Parrot's Beak. Other camps are also planned in Dabola prefecture. A transit camp has been established in Conakry for the repatriation of refugees to Sierra Leone by boat.
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