INTER-COMMUNAL CLASHES IN COTE D’IVOIRE INCREASE

INTER-COMMUNAL CLASHES IN COTE D’IVOIRE INCREASE

NEW YORK, 22 January (OCHA) –- Thirty-five people have been killed and hundreds displaced since inter-communal violence in Côte d’Ivoire’s western regions worsened late last month.  “There has been an alarming increase in levels of inter-communal violence in Côte d’Ivoire.  The Government must do more to stop the violence.  I call on all parties to actively bring an end to violence directed against civilians”, said Carolyn McAskie, the United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Since 29 December, 35 bodies have been found by LICORNE, forces sent by the French Government to Côte d’Ivoire, in villages surrounding Bangolo.  The town is some 600 kilometres north-west of Abidjan and has recently been a flashpoint for violence against people perceived to be non-native to the region.  On 5 January, six persons, including three children, were killed in one incident alone.

Hundreds of people of Burkinabé origin have been displaced from villages in Gagnoa District.  More than 180 persons have arrived at a camp for internally displaced persons in Guiglo, 550 kilometres from Abidjan, since the beginning of the month.  Many have reported that they had been forced to flee a nearby village, Troya 2, by armed persons from neighbouring villages.  According to the internally displaced persons at Guiglo, there have been no ethnic conflicts within their community, but “armed young people from surrounding villages” have harassed and driven them out.  Further, they reported that there were scores of displaced persons who had not yet reached the internally displaced persons site at Guiglo.  The great majority of the displaced are long-term residents of Côte d’Ivoire, 300 of whom had been living in Troya 2 for years.  There are now only 22 persons of Burkinabé origin in Troya 2.

The new displacement is straining the resources of Guiglo, where 21,000 internally displaced persons reside, and those of nearby transit centres for displaced persons at Nicla.  The two sites at Nicla, already home to some 7,400 Liberian refugees and Côte d’Ivoire’s internally displaced, lack enough shelter or sanitation to cope with recent influxes.  In response to growing demand, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and International Organization for Migration have increased the amount of services they provide to the area.  The WFP and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have also asked the authorities for permission to begin food distributions to some 7,000 Liberian asylum-seekers in the border town of Bin Houye.  Refugees there lack basic necessities and food.  It has been difficult to reach them with aid, as the towns are just 3 kilometres from the border with Liberia’s Nimba County, where some instability persists.

The local administration, including the police and judiciary, has not been able to resume the full range of their activities in this crime-prone area since services lapsed at the peak of fighting between government forces and rebels roughly a year ago.  Complicated property issues in cocoa-producing regions and the proliferation of small arms contribute to the tension in western Côte d’Ivoire.  The harvest season may give rise to increased tensions and insecurity over the next three months.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA New York, tel.: 917 367 5126, mobile: 917 892 1679; or Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel.: 41 22 917 2653, mobile: 41 (0) 79 472 4570.

* *** *