09/01/2004

One of the poorest countries in Africa, Sierra Leone shelters some 54,000 Liberians in eight small refugee camps in Bo and Kenema districts. Another 6,000 Liberian refugees reside in urban areas. Sierra Leone agreed to admit and shelter the refugees, even though it was struggling to resettle over 270,000 returning refugees and over 500,000 Sierra Leoneans internally displaced by war. Many of these had been traumatized by the Rebel United Front, which was notorious for amputating limbs, violating women, wholesale killing, burning and looting of villages and forcing children into its ranks of killers.