SIERRA LEONE: Relief items distributed to farmers
Tens of thousands of farming families in eastern Sierra Leone have started to receive seeds, farm tools and other relief items as part of efforts to help internally displaced persons and refugees resettle in their home villages, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported on Thursday.
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
SIERRA LEONE: Relief items distributed to farmers
ABIDJAN, 6 May (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of farming families in eastern
Sierra Leone have started to receive seeds, farm tools and other relief
items as part of efforts to help internally displaced persons and refugees
resettle in their home villages, the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) reported on Thursday.
About 20,000 families in seven chiefdoms in Kono District and another 20,000
families - about 240,000 people - in six chiefdoms in Kailahun District
would receive rice seed, groundnut seed and hoes, the ICRC said. The most
vulnerable members, some 12,000 people in Kono and 14,000 people in
Kailahun, would also receive non-food items including shelter materials,
blankets, buckets, kitchen sets, mats and mosquito nets, distributed by ICRC
and the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS).
To help meet the demands for safe water and sanitation, nearly 800 pit
latrines had been dug in recent weeks in 53 villages in Kono and new wells
were being constructed. The ICRC provided materials, expertise and training
and the building work was carried out by members of the local community, the
ICRC reported. A similar programme was underway in three chiefdoms in
Kailahun, it added.
Hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans were displaced or became refugees
during the decade-long civil war between rebels of the Revolutionary United
Front and the government. The conflict ended officially in January and
general elections are scheduled to take place on 14 May.
[ENDS]
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