Guinea: Several dozen casualties taken to N'zérékoré hospital

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 19, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- In the aftermath of the intercommunal violence in the Guinean city of N'zérékoré, volunteers from the Red Cross Society of Guinea and staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have taken several dozen wounded people to N'zérékoré regional hospital and transported a dozen dead bodies to the city morgue.

"Although the situation has been calm since yesterday and there have been no further clashes, people are still in serious need of humanitarian assistance," said Jean-Jacques Tshamala Mbuyi, head of the ICRC delegation in Guinea. ICRC staff, with the help of Red Cross volunteers, have been using two vehicles to criss-cross the city collecting the wounded and the dead. Mr Tshamala reminded all parties that medical workers and the teams taking people to hospital must not be prevented from doing their work.

A hospital director described the situation: "Casualties were flooding in and we ran out of supplies. That's when we turned to the ICRC in N'zérékoré and asked them for IV fluids, syringes, needles and dressings to treat the wounded."

The ICRC duly delivered medical supplies to the hospital. Like five other hospitals in Guinea, N'zérékoré regional hospital has been receiving ICRC training for its personnel since 2007. That training has included mass-casualty management. An ICRC nurse will be arriving in N'zérékoré on 20 July to boost the ICRC team already on-site.