Guinea refugees turned back as fighting flares

From CNN reporter Ivan Watson

CONAKRY, Guinea (CNN) -- New shooting broke out Thursday in a town along the country's southeastern border -- where six months of fighting in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia has displaced hundreds of thousands -- just a day after government forces reopened the area to civilians.

The border town of Gueckedou, with a population of about 200,000, has been the most recent front in the six-month war between government forces and various rebel groups.

The Guinean government said it had recaptured Gueckedou from rebels earlier this week after heavy artillery and air attacks. It reopened the town Wednesday to civilians, who returned only to find the area leveled by the fighting.

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The border region is home to a quarter of a million refugees, according to United Nations estimates. Many of them have fled from conflicts and civil wars in the area, which borders on both Sierra Leone and Liberia.

A United Nations convoy shuttling refugees back to Gueckedou was forced to turn back Thursday because of the renewed assault. They had been evacuating residents of the Nyaedou camp to a newer camp about two hours away because of continued fighting in the area, said a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UNHCR also has expressed concern that rebels would recruit fighters from refugees weary of living in overcrowded camps.

Nyaedou is home to some 30,000 refugees. The United Nations had evacuated 600 people from the camp since the convoys began Tuesday.

Ruud Lubbers, new head of the UNHCR, is due to visit the region this weekend. He has called the area's refugee situation one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Stanford Libraries, Guinea Information
Government of Sierra Leone
Revolutionary United Front Party
Sierra Leone Civil Defence Force
UNAMSIL Mission in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone Web

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