Guinea: first food distribution in months in Parrot's Beak area

The first food distribution in months starts today in Guinea's volatile Parrot's Beak area, as more convoys with supplies are headed for the region. Two teams of field workers from the French NGO Première Urgence today start distributing food to up to 4,000 people in makeshift locations of Temessadou, Kamayan and Mongo, south-west of Guéckédou. The food was brought into the area on Monday by the first relief convoy to reach the Parrot's Beak since last autumn. Another UNHCR convoy of 14 trucks carrying World Food Programme food for more than 4,000 people is supposed to reach the sites of Tomandou and Koladou, deeper into the Parrot's Beak area later today. The convoy operation is plagued by a lack of trucks since most of UNHCR's available vehicles are currently being used to ferry refugees from the destroyed Katkama camp near Guéckédou to a new camp in a relatively safe area further north. More than 14,000 people have been transferred to date. The transfer of the remaining 9,000 is scheduled to be completed in about 10 days' time. Once the movement is over UNHCR will be able to nearly quadruple its capacity to bring aid into the Parrot's Beak and eventually to begin moving some of the estimated 135,000 refugees in the area to camps further inland in Guinea.