HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE WORSENS, SAY UN OFFICIALS

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE WORSENS, SAY UN OFFICIALS

NEW YORK, 31 March (OCHA) -- As the world’s attention is focused elsewhere, the humanitarian situation in Côte d’Ivoire continues to worsen, according to United Nations officials in the country.  Intensifying violence and instability in the country’s lawless west are making it increasingly difficult for aid workers to reach civilians desperately in need of humanitarian assistance.  Conditions in rebel-controlled areas (of the north) suffer for lack of public services and a strangled economy.  Even in the government-controlled south, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the communities who host them face deepening economic and health crises.

The dangerous and unpredictable security situation in the west, especially in areas near the border with Liberia, poses stiff challenges to the humanitarian aid community.  The World Food Programme (WFP) reports that there are currently some 37,000 IDPs in the district of Guiglo, and between 40,000 and 50,000 IDPs in the nearby district of Duekoue, where little humanitarian assistance is available. United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations, in cooperation with local authorities, are currently evaluating sites for the temporary shelter for and the provision of further aid to IDPs in Guiglo.

Continuing violence in the west has prompted tens of thousands of people, including third country nationals, Ivorians and Liberian refugees, to flee both into Liberia, where they are now trapped in fighting that has broken out in recent days near the town of Zwedru, as well as into government-controlled areas in southern Côte d’Ivoire.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is concerned that Liberian refugees in Nicla camp, outside of Guiglo, and in the transit centres of Abidjan are being recruited -- sometimes by force -- into armed groups.

Humanitarian conditions in the north, largely controlled by Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d’Ivoire (MPCI) rebels, are also worrisome.  The WFP reports that commercial farmers in the north-west, now cut off from access to southern markets to sell crops such as cotton, are at high risk of food insecurity.  The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is sending a convoy of medical supplies to the north, as it reports that the situation of children in the Bouna and Bondoukou districts is “ near catastrophic” due to a breakdown in the health system, including a lack of vaccination campaigns.  As in the west, the health situation in the north continues to deteriorate due to the interruption of health services and lack of medical supplies.

In the government-controlled south, the high concentrations of IDPs in transit centres and with host families add to rising prices of food commodities, and are rendering ever higher numbers of individuals prone to communicable diseases.  Measles outbreaks among children have not reached epidemic status, thanks to the quick intervention of local authorities, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), and non-governmental organizations.  Over 500 cases of cholera have been reported in the last two months, with an estimated 20 confirmed deaths having occurred in Abidjan and central Côte d’Ivoire.

For further information, please contact:  Brian Grogan, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, tel. 1-212-963-1143, or in Abidjan, Jeff Brez, tel. (225) 2240-5172.

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