UN HUMANITARIAN OFFICE SAYS FAILURE TO INCREASE SUPPORT FOR COTE D’IVOIRE COULD DESTABILIZE LIBERIA, SIERRA LEONE

UN HUMANITARIAN OFFICE SAYS FAILURE TO INCREASE SUPPORT FOR COTED’IVOIRE

COULD DESTABILIZE LIBERIA, SIERRA LEONE

NEW YORK, 19 February (OCHA) -- Failure to increase international support to Côte d’Ivoire could result in the destabilization of neighbouring countries.  This was the conclusion of a recent report from Côte d’Ivoire issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Abidjan.

The disarmament process has commenced and has received international support in neighbouring Liberia and has been completed in Sierra Leone.  To consolidate the progress made in these countries, Côte d’Ivoire must receive international support and embark on the same process.  If not, Côte d’Ivoire could jeopardize its neighbours’ fragile recovery.

In the past, Côte d’Ivoire provided economic opportunities to many immigrants in the subregion.  It is estimated at least 25 per cent of the population in Côte d’Ivoire are immigrants or descendents of immigrants from neighbouring countries.  In the 1990s, Côte d’Ivoire also provided asylum to hundreds of thousands of Liberian refugees.  Moreover, landlocked neighbours are heavily dependent on Abidjan port, the second biggest harbour in West Africa.  Before the current crisis, more than 70 per cent of the external trade of Mali and about 80 per cent of that of Burkina Faso passed through it.

The conflict in Côte d’Ivoire pushed hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes and produced about 52,000 Ivorian refugees registered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the movement of 342,000 Burkinabe and 82,000 Malians fleeing Côte d’Ivoire.  An estimated half a million internally displaced persons are living with host families.  The collapse of basic social services -- education, health, water and sanitation -- has further weakened human security and increased poverty and instability, while the HIV pandemic is reaching an alarming rate, especially among young women. The humanitarian needs of populations affected by the crisis, particularly internally displaced persons, are urgent. 

The inter-agency consolidated appeal requires $69 million in 2004 to meet these humanitarian needs and support the return of internally displaced persons.

Even though the belligerents in Côte d’Ivoire have officially declared the end of the war, inter- and intra-community tensions and conflicts remain, and may be exacerbated with the return of internally displaced persons to their areas of origin.  Without adequate resources for disarmament, demobilization, and reconciliation, the situation could deteriorate further.

In the past, Côte d’Ivoire has been an example of regional stability.  Today, Côte d’Ivoire needs the international community to mobilize resources, respond to its urgent needs, support the peace process, and help rebuild society.

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

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