Senegal: ICRC delivers essential aid to displaced persons in Casamance
17-05-2010 News Release 10/82
Ziguinchor (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has today started distributing food and essential household goods to displaced persons in the village of Baraf on the outskirts of Ziguinchor, Casamance.
In September 2009, Baraf was the scene of armed violence that forced the population to take refuge in the regional capital of Ziguinchor. A recent Senegalese Red Cross needs assessment revealed that over 370 people from Baraf were still living in Ziguinchor, afraid that the violence could start again. They have little to survive on, as they left everything behind when they fled.
Ilda Pina is coordinating economic security programmes at the ICRC's Ziguinchor sub-delegation. " This food should provide just under half of what these people will need between now and October, " she explains.
Over 10,000 people who left their villages on account of the violence that has wracked this part of Senegal for over two decades are still living in Ziguinchor, some of them under very difficult conditions.
The ICRC has been working in Casamance since 2004. Under its mandate to protect and assist the victims of conflict and other situations of violence, the organization is focusing on providing emergency assistance, repairing health facilities and water systems and supporting veterinary assistants, women's groups relaunching market gardening and the community activities of the Senegalese Red Cross Society.
For further information, please contact:Lamine Coly, ICRC Ziguinchor, tel: +221 77 512 03 47
Wolde-Gabriel Saugeron, ICRC Dakar, tel: + 221 77 529 71 45