PRESS BRIEFING BY UNICEF ON SIERRA LEONE

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNICEF ON SIERRA LEONE

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) would hold a workshop on Wednesday, 25 March, to sensitize forces of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), government officials and representatives of civil defence units on the need to protect child combatants of the rebel Revolutionary United Front, as they surrendered, Anthony Bloomberg, UNICEF representative in Sierra Leone, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Updating correspondents on the situation in Sierra Leone and the major challenges facing UNICEF over the next few months, Mr. Bloomberg said that most of the United Front's 3,000 child combatants had retreated with the defeated rebel fighters and were thought to be in the east of the country. But some stragglers had been left behind in the hills outside the capital, Freetown, and were afraid to give themselves up for fear of what would happen to them if they did. There were programmes to take the children and rehabilitate them through UNICEF and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The rebel group had joined forces with Sierra Leone's former military junta which was ousted by the Nigerian-led ECOMOG forces that restored democratically elected President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah on 10 March.

Another challenge for UNICEF in Sierra Leone, Mr. Bloomberg said, was to prepare for cholera prevention. The country was at highest risk during the June-October rainy season, and it was important that preparations, such as chlorination of wells and distribution of oral rehydration salts, take place over the next few months. He recalled that United Nations agencies in Sierra Leone had issued an inter-agency appeal for about $11 million for the actions that were necessary over the next three months; the UNICEF portion of the appeal, about $4 million, was for health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education and child protection programmes.

He said clinics in Freetown had been revived, and UNICEF was working with the Ministry of Health on mass immunization in the capital, a strategy that would be adopted in the other provincial towns as they opened up. Hospitals were being supplied with drugs, and preparations would be made for immunization in those localities.

President Kabbah, he said, had announced a new Cabinet last Friday, and the situation in Freetown was returning to normal. The Revolutionary United Front and elements of the army were still holding out in the east of the country, although ECOMOG had taken the major towns. Major roads were being used by private vehicles, but the aid community was still not absolutely confident of their safety.

He said that a food convoy had left Freetown this morning, the first time that the roads had been used in a major way for humanitarian assistance. "Therefore, what is happening in the countryside outside of the major towns is still not clear to the humanitarian community."

An assessment mission had been made into the southern districts, which were relatively safe because they were held by the local civil militias, Mr. Bloomberg said. It had been found that people had eaten their rice seed, and there would be a need for targeted food distribution and for help in the planting season between April and June. It was absolutely critical for the farmers to get support, such as tools, micro-loans and rice seed, because if the planting was not successful this year, there would be insufficient harvest in October.

He said that sufficient food was going into Freetown and imported food was also arriving there; Sierra Leone only grew half its food requirement. There were constraints in getting the relief food to the provincial towns, but the World Food Programme and other agencies were working to overcome those constraints.

Asked what proportion of the population UNICEF could reach, Mr. Bloomberg said the major population centres, in Freetown and the main provincial towns, could be reached. "The situation in the rest of the country is improving day by day, so it is not possible for me to tell you exactly how many people can be reached or not reached." In its planning for the next three months, UNICEF estimated that it could reach 1.5 million people out of a total population of 4.5 million.

Responding to other questions, he said that UNICEF defined children as being less than 18 years old, while the Red Cross defined them as those under 15. The combatants in the hills could be as young as eight years old and as old as 18 years. Half of the country's population was under 18 years old.

Responding to another question, he said that during the military junta's rule -- after the coup d'état of 25 May 1997 until the ECOMOG intervention of 6 February 1998 -- UNICEF, through its networking with various NGOs with access to the children of the Revolutionary United Front, was negotiating their release. Some 500 children were registered during that period, and about 250 were released by the Front.

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