The office opened in 1991 and soon became a base from which the civilian population across the south and east of the country was regularly provided with food, household items, shelter material and other aid.

The ICRC frequently supplied Kenema hospital with medicines and helped it upgrade its facilities. The hospital performed war surgery in a fully impartial manner on thousands of wounded people.

ICRC engineers sank and maintained wells and built and upgraded water-storage facilities in dozens of communities.

Tracing staff helped many families find lost children and other relatives scattered throughout the region as a result of the fighting.

Work to reunite families will continue out of the ICRC delegation in Freetown, as will promotion of international humanitarian law, humanitarian aid for people held in prisons and support for the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society. The closure of this last "field office" is a sign that the emergency is ending and that the country is enjoying growing stability.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has a strong presence in the country through the Sierra Leone Red Cross with its 13 branches and through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The ICRC would like to express its deep gratitude to its locally recruited staff in Kenema whose hard work has been of such benefit to the victims of conflict. It wishes them every success in the future.