MADRID, Spain, FEB. 16, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Caritas-Spain sources said the international organization´s network has mobilized its resources to aid the more than 500,000 refugees and displaced people in Guinea.
The refugees´ situation has worsened in recent months, following the offensive of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which operates out of neighboring Sierra Leone. Several refugee camps have been destroyed.
According to experts and Caritas sources, RUF is supported by Charles Taylor, president of Liberia and former guerrilla. In recent years, the entire area has lived in acute unrest, because of successive civil wars. Partly at stake is control of the region´s diamond deposits.
The international aid agencies have been overwhelmed in Guinea, a country of 7.4 million about the size of Oregon. Secours Catholique, the French Caritas, reported Thursday that the resources of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees in the country cannot meet all the refugees´ needs.
Together with Catholic Relief Service specialists and Secours Catholique, Caritas-Guinea is implementing a program which will enable at least one-tenth of the Sierra Leone and Liberian refugees to receive assistance. The latter´s situation is exacerbated by tensions between the English-speaking refugees and the local French-speaking population.
Food rations are now being distributed among refugees heading for Conakry, the country´s capital, who are hoping to be repatriated by ship to their native countries. Caritas-Guinea has set up a refugee camp for 1,000 in a Catholic school, which already is overflowing.
Caritas-Guinea has appealed to Caritas´ international network for aid worth more than $2 million.
