UN HUMANITARIAN ENVOY FOR CRISIS IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE VISITS GHANA

UN HUMANITARIAN ENVOY FOR CRISIS IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE VISITS GHANA

NEW YORK, 30 January (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

-- The Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy for the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, Carolyn McAskie, continued her visit to the region with a stop in Ghana today.

In Accra, Ms. McAskie met with Ghanaian authorities, including the Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, representatives of humanitarian organizations, and the United Nations country team.  She discussed with them the extent of the impact of the Côte d’Ivoire crisis on Ghana, ongoing measures to address the humanitarian situation, and emergency preparedness measures currently in place.  From Ghana, Ms. McAskie will go to Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia, and Mali. 

In Abidjan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that residents of the Washington shanty town were berated by armed men on 28 January for having spoken to the press.  The residents told OCHA that the armed men then set fire to nine homes, brutalized residents and detained seven young men. OCHA has also received accounts of threats having been made against the residents of the “Abdoulaye Diallo” shanty town on 27 January and that 50 homes there have been burned. 

After having raised the issue of threats against shanty towns with President Laurent Gbagbo, Ms. McAskie visited the Washington shantytown and heard residents’ eyewitness accounts of brutality.  OCHA, Save the Children and other humanitarian partners are monitoring the situation in Abidjan’s shanty towns closely.  OCHA has called on the authorities to make sure that domestic and international law, particularly those that apply to the protection of civilians in armed conflict, are respected.

For further information, please contact ABIDJAN:  Jeff Brez 225 2240 4442

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