Guinea-Bissau: Oxfam Responds in Wake of Armed Conflict
20 October 2006
In March of 2006, fighting broke out between the Guinea-Bissau army and members of a Senegalese separatist faction. Oxfam is working with local partners to assist communities that were badly affected by the conflict.
When armed conflict erupted on the border of the West African nations of Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, thousands of civilians fled to safety. (Read more about the history of the conflict.)
Many families were able to make their way to the homes of friends and relatives in safer parts of the country during the army’s campaign to push a Senegalese separatist group back across the border into Senegal, but for the majority of those affected by the fighting, escape from the conflict zone wasn’t an option.
On March 16, a landmine exploded under a truck on the road that links the coastal villages of Suzana and Varela to the town of São Domingos, killing 13 women who were traveling to the São Domingos market. Concerns that more mines lay buried along the road prevented an estimated 20,000 people from leaving the area for several weeks. Those same concerns prevented overland shipments of aid to the isolated communities, though a few small deliveries of food, medicine, and other essentials were able to reach the towns by boat.
The conflict was short-lived: on April 23rd, the Guinea-Bissau army announced that the separatist group had been chased back into Senegal and the fighting was over. But when armed violence takes place in the midst of deep poverty, it can take a heavy toll on people’s health, safety, and livelihoods.
Guinea-Bissau is one of the very poorest nations in the world—a country burdened with massive foreign debt, where many families eat only one meal a day and where the life expectancy is barely 45 years. Most people eke out a living by farming, and much depends on the fate of the cashew crop. So when farmers were forced to flee their homes at cashew harvest time, they forfeited most of their meager income for the year. And when they returned to their homes to find many of them looted or destroyed, resources for rebuilding were scarce.
Some people around the town of São Domingos, though not blocked in by the fighting and the threat of landmines, stayed in their homes to protect their belongings. Others remained because they were elderly and physically unable to escape.
“Many of the families that stayed behind ended up taking in people who were fleeing the conflict,” said Emily Farr, an Oxfam humanitarian program officer on the assessment team. “Some of these hosts took in 30 or more people, meaning that by the end of the conflict they had used up all of their resources.”
Oxfam provides emergency relief
Working through local partners, Oxfam is now providing emergency aid to more than 9,600 of those hit hardest by the conflict. Distributions of food, mosquito nets, and kitchen utensils are helping meet the most urgent needs, and in order to help families quickly regain their ability to provide for themselves, we are also offering tools and seeds to replant crops of beans, manioc, and other vegetables. Our partners have undertaken a project to rebuild/rehabilitate 75 houses that were damaged in the fighting near São Domingos, each of which will be provided with its own latrine. Wells for drinking water will also be restored.
Beyond disaster response
In the aftermath of the conflict, Oxfam partners are offering workshops to more than 8,000 people affected by the conflict—trainings on basic health care, improving incomes, disaster preparedness and prevention, gender issues, and helping community voices be heard in the political process. Because in Guinea-Bissau and impoverished countries around the world, it’s crucial that disaster survivors be offered the chance not only to recover from the latest crisis but to tackle the poverty and discrimination that threaten their health, dignity, and security every day.
Oxfam International is a confederation of 12 organizations working together with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty, suffering, and injustice. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.oxfamamerica.org.
Last updated: Oct 2006
