Background
Less than a year after the signing of a peace accord between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and the government of Sierra Leone, renewed fighting has erupted in this West African country. The RUF first launched its guerilla war in this diamond-rich country the size of South Carolina in 1991. A nine-year campaign against the government has left thousands of people dead, mutilated or dismembered and displaced many more within and outside the country.
The Lome Peace Accord -- signed in July 1999 between the government and the RUF -- granted amnesty to rebel leader Foday Sankoh and as many as 15,000 rebels in exchange for ending their violent campaign against President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. An 8,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission was deployed to the country to help oversee disarmament and enforce the accords.
In early May, however, RUF rebels attacked a U.N. peacekeeping force at the central Makeni area, northeast of the capital of Freetown. Over a period of several days, the rebels seized more than 500 U.N. personnel and tried to advance on Freetown after a dispute over disarmament.
The latest crisis escalated with a shoot-out on May 8 outside Sankoh's residence. Sankoh has since been arrested and is being held in protective custody by government police. In the meantime, the president of neighboring Liberia, Charles Taylor, helped negotiate the release of the seized U.N. peacekeepers.
The most recent round of fighting places a further strain on the country -- already considered the poorest in the world -- and its scattered population of 5 million, who have endured nearly a decade of violence and political instability.
The month of May marks the beginning of the "hunger season" -- the planting period when household food supply is at its lowest point in Sierra Leone. Without immediate deliveries of seeds to plant and food to sustain families until harvest, the country's food supply will be inadequate. In addition, thousands of newly displaced people have flocked to Freetown, a city already overcrowded with internally displaced people.
CARE's Response:
CARE is one of the longest-serving humanitarian organizations in Sierra Leone, active since 1961. Initially focused on improving child nutrition, CARE has been responding to emergency food needs since war broke out in 1991.
The renewed fighting has severely hampered efforts by aid agencies to deliver food and other forms of emergency relief to vulnerable rural populations that continue to be cut-off by the violence. Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to be without humanitarian services in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Many areas of Sierra Leone have not received food and agricultural assistance for at least 18 months. However, CARE's field operations in accessible areas of Sierra Leone are continuing throughout the crisis. CARE staff have been working hard to secure existing food supplies and where possible, to distribute pre-positioned non-food items and rice seed.
Leading a small interagency team, CARE recently delivered 67 tons of emergency food rations and supplies for 4,500 people in the small town of Masanga, located about 16 miles southeast of Makeni. The food -- wheat, vegetable oil and lentils -- and supplies were the first such distribution in the area in nearly 18 months. Also this month, CARE had planned to spearhead another interagency large-scale food distribution to some 90,000 beneficiaries in southern Tonkolili who have been cut-off for 18 months. This distribution had to be canceled as security deteriorated.
As the security situation improves and safe and unhindered access is assured, CARE will help people return to their homes and will distribute urgently-needed food, seeds and other emergency supplies to affected families.
Though the prolonged civil war and recent threats to security have limited CARE's longer-term rehabilitation programs in the areas of agriculture, health and water, CARE is one of the few humanitarian agencies in the country helping to repair or rebuild homes in rural areas.
