UNITED NATIONS RESUMES AID IN WESTERN CÔTE D’IVOIRE

 

ABIDJAN/ NEW YORK, 9 February (OCHA) -- Earlier this week, the humanitarian community resumed delivering and distributing urgent assistance to the most vulnerable populations in and around the town of Guiglo in western Côte d’Ivoire.

As an initial step, the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners -- namely, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Daloa Red Cross and the non-governmental organizations Caritas and Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) -- delivered and distributed some 288 metric tonnes of food assistance to meet the needs of the most vulnerable for the month of February.  Those populations include malnourished children being cared for in an MSF-run nutritional centre and those affected by HIV/AIDS and their families, as well as more than 13,000 internally displaced persons and refugees sheltering in two camps in Guiglo.

Security arrangements for the convoys and assistance material were arranged jointly with the Military Governor of Duékoué and the Prefect of Guiglo, who bear primary responsibility for ensuring the security of both the humanitarian workers and beneficiary populations.  The decision to affect this assistance mission was taken after a joint security evaluation mission was conducted on 9 February.

That security evaluation enabled representatives of the United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations formerly based in Guiglo to meet with the local authorities and population, in order to adapt their activities to the prevailing situation, in conformity with the principles of international humanitarian law.  The mission also enabled them to evaluate in a precise manner the losses sustained and possibility of returning to the area.

Assistance activities in and around Guiglo had been suspended since the events of 17 to 19 January, when United Nations and other international organizations’ bases in Guiglo came under attack, prompting the evacuation of all international personnel from the area.

Offices, warehouses, vehicles and other equipment belonging to the WFP, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the IOM, as well as the non-governmental organizations Save the Children, Afrique Secours Assistance (ASA), Caritas, Solidarités, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), were attacked and destroyed during the disturbances.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA- New York, tel.:  +1 917 367 5126, mobile:  +1 917 892 1679; Kristen Knutson, OCHA- New York, tel.:  +1 917 367 9262; or Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, tel.:  +41 22 917 2653, mobile:  +41 79 473 4570.

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For information media • not an official record