DATE=6/20/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SIERRA LEONE / HUMANITARIAN AID (L-O)
NUMBER=2-263573
BYLINE=PURNELL MURDOCK
DATELINE=ABIDJAN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-N World Food Program says Sierra Leone
faces a humanitarian crisis in areas affected by
fighting between government-allied forces and Sierra
Leonean rebels. V-O-A's Purnell Murdock has details
from our West Africa bureau.
TEXT: The World Food Program says it and other aid
agencies have registered more than 85-thousand people
displaced by fighting in northern and eastern Sierra
Leone in the past six-weeks.
Aid workers say most of the displaced are arriving in
the capital, Freetown, and the nearby towns of Lungi,
Port Loko, and Mile 91. All are considered safe from
rebel attack.
But U-N World Food Program spokesman, Wagdi Othman,
says the situation in the countryside is still too
dangerous for aid groups to take care of the needy.
/// OTHMAN ACT ///
We are forced to delay food distribution.
Sometimes we are forced to recall food convoys
to very remote and isolated areas of Sierra
Leone. People are waiting to be fed and they
can only rely on food provided by the
international community. But because of the
insecurity, because of the fact that a lot of
places are not reachable by the humanitarian
community, they are now facing very tough
conditions.
/// END ACT ///
The World Food Program says it was forced to delay
food distribution to more than 16-thousand people last
Thursday in Lungi. The aid agency says it also called
back a food convoy destined for more than 14-thousand
displaced people in Port Loko.
Mr. Othman says the World Food Program and its
partners are trying to find safe places for the
displaced. But he says that is difficult because the
security situation in the outlying areas can change
rapidly.
Adding to the problem is the timing of the latest
upsurge in fighting. Mr. Othman says the renewed
conflict has displaced farmers during the planting
season.
/// SECOND OTHMAN ACT ///
It (the fighting) is having a devastating effect
on the ability of thousands of Sierra Leoneans
to feed themselves. If the situation was
normal, the farmers could sustain the entire
population.
/// END ACT ///
Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced
since Sierra Leone's civil war erupted 10-years ago.
The Sierra Leone government signed a peace deal with
Revolutionary United Front rebels in July 1999.
Renewed fighting erupted last May. (SIGNED)
NEB/WPM/GE/RAE/RAE
20-Jun-2000 09:41 AM EDT (20-Jun-2000 1341 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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