Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN

Road to the airport in N’zérékoré, southeastern Guinea (file photo) A routine humanitarian flight to the area was canceled after clashes

DAKAR, 8 February 2010 (IRIN) - Tensions following clashes in N’zérékoré, southeastern Guinea, are hampering the movement of some humanitarian workers and supplies, according to the UN.

The UN security team in Guinea has suspended travel to N’zérékoré except some humanitarian and security missions, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). UN staff in the city, in Guinea’s Forest region, have been advised to remain in their homes, following the 5-6 February clashes in which at least four people died and 69 were wounded, with two disappeared.

Residents and UN say the injured include many military.

A World Health Organization (WHO) vehicle with medical supplies for N’zérékoré is blocked in Guéckédou about 240km away, as no UN vehicles are moving in and out of N’zérékoré, René Coddy, WHO representative in Guinea, told IRIN on 8 February.

The WHO vehicle left the capital Conakry on 6 February with medicines and other supplies for N’zérékoré hospital, he said, adding the supplies would complement medicines and other materials WHO’s N’zérékoré office have already provided.

“We are trying to get a security escort so the car can continue on to N’zérékoré,” he said.

The routine humanitarian flight of 8 February to N’zérékoré was cancelled, according to OCHA, which says officials would attempt again for the next routine flight on 10 February.

UN expects to send a security and humanitarian evaluation team in the coming days, OCHA says in a 8 February report.

Slit throat, burned body

While N’zérékoré began to return to calm by 8 February attacks apparently continued. The body of a woman whose throat was slit was brought to the regional hospital on 8 February, according to a health worker who said he saw the body. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he told IRIN people who accompanied the woman – who was about 60 years old – to hospital said they were from a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city.

The health worker said the previous day he saw the burned corpse of a man who residents reported had been burned alive.

The recent clashes were reportedly between Muslims and Christians in N’zérékoré; residents said the tensions take on an ethnic dimension with the people of the Malinké and Konianké ethnic groups mostly Muslim, and the Geurzé predominantly Christian.

N’zérékoré (name of a region and the capital city) has seen ethnic clashes in the past, with some 100 people killed in 2001. Recent political tension in Guinea took on an ethnic tone in N’zérékoré.

Clashes erupted on 5 February near a mosque where some who gathered for prayers defied a recent order not to occupy public passageways during Friday prayers, residents told IRIN. The restriction stemmed from a 29 January incident in which a woman passing the mosque during prayers was beaten up.

A government delegation from Conakry – including religious leaders and the former governor, current agriculture minister, Boureima Condé – travelled to N’zérékoré on 6 February to assess the situation and on 8 February met with residents and members of ethnic communities and religious groups, according to Augustin Impérial, member of a local civil society organization.

“Leaders of the different groups agreed to continue to call for calm among their members,” he said. “No one gains if the region slides into ethnic clashes.”

A dusk-to-dawn curfew, put in place at the weekend, was lifted as of 8 February, residents said. Security forces continued to patrol the city.

np/aj