Guinea-Bissau: Help for the displaced and hungry

Since Saturday 20 June, the ICRC and the Red Cross Society of Guinea-Bissau have been distributing food aid made available by the United Nations'World Food Programme to displaced people in the capital Bissau.

Cooking oil, rice and other cereals have been provided to people who had sought refuge in the N'dame and Toquir mission compounds and in the grounds of the Simao-Mendes hospital, as well as to people who had fled the fighting towards the town of Prabis, to the south-west of Bissau. In all, over 10,000 people have received almost 50 tonnes of food from volunteers of the Guinea-Bissau Red Cross, which is being supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The vast majority of those displaced from Bissau have fled east and are now cut off from aid sources by the front line separating them from the capital. Three ICRC staff members (a  delegate, a health-care specialist and a water and sanitation engineer) have therefore set off for the area concerned from Conakry, capital of the neighbouring Republic of Guinea.

Two more ICRC delegates have left Dakar for Bissau to reinforce the team already on the spot.