UNHCR ends work on Guinea border

Guinea is home to about 400,000 refugees

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says it has completed its work in the Parrot's Beak area of southern Guinea.

The agency said that it has transferred more than 50,000 Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees caught up in the border fighting to safer areas in Guinea's interior.

The UNHCR said that a small number of people preferred to stay in the area waiting for a chance to go back to their country.

The fighting between forces in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia threatened to create one of the world's worst humanitarian crises earlier this year.

The UNHCR has been trying to sort out the refugee problem on Guinea's southern border since last September when attacks began.

Continued fighting hindered the agency's progress and at times it was forced to suspend aid supplies.

The UNHCR is now terminating its assistance programmes in the Parrot's Beak region.

The fighting in southern Guinea is mainly between the government army and rebels made up of local forces and mercenaries recruited in neighbouring countries.

Some of the clashes have been over military targets but others have been raids for food or moves to protect the diamond mines in the region.