EU humanitarian aid to Guinea

The European Commission is providing humanitarian aid worth €4.5 million to help victims of the fighting in frontier areas of Guinea adjacent to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The aid is earmarked principally for health care, water and food. It is being channeled by the Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) through partner organizations working in the region.

A significant proportion of the new funding has been earmarked for health care, targeting both refugees and resident populations. Health facilities in the affected area have been damaged or destroyed in the fighting and the incidence of serious diseases including malaria, respiratory infections and diarrhoea is increasing. Integrated relief operations are also envisaged focusing on the provision of water/sanitation and of non-food items, including shelter. A third component of the decision involves support for food distribution to refugees and internally displaced people.

Since September 2000, there have been a series of incursions and rebel attacks on Guinean territory, emanating from Sierra Leone and Liberia. These have profoundly destabilized the Guékedou/Kissidougou area in South West Guinea, provoking movements of Sierre Leonean refugees living in camps and forcing local people to leave their homes.

The Commission plans to continue supporting both the internal relocation and repatriation exercise organized by the humanitarian community in the region.

ECHO gave over €4 million in 2000 to tackle the regional crisis. This included funding a major vaccination campaign against yellow fever.

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• EU humanitarian aid for Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia (22/1/2002)
• EU Presidency declaration on the situation in Guinea (22/12/2000)