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IRIN Web Special on Cote d’Ivoire crisis
WEST AFRICA: Insecurity in Cote d’Ivoire has thousands on the run - Part II
Pascualine Blei is overcome with emotion on being reunited with her aunt Janette Bah
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Displacement splits families
Bouake resident Pascualine Blei fled the town soon after the rebels took over, leaving her septuagenarian aunt Janette Bah behind. Five weeks passed with neither knowing what had become of the other. Then, on 6 November, they met by chance at a transit camp in the Ivorian capital, Yamassoukro. Overcome by emotion, the two women embraced each other. “She is the only relative I have in this town, except for my (infant) daughter,” Blei (25) told IRIN in Yamassoukro.
But Gbaka’s relief at finding her niece was outweighed by her concern for her son, who had remained behind in Bouake after placing his elderly mother in the care of an acquaintance with whom she trekked for kilometres before reaching a location where they could find transport. What made her leave? Fear, she said. Her greatest wish, she added, was to see her son in Yamassoukro.
Another internally displaced person (IDP) in Yamassoukro said he fled Bouake because he had no money or food left and also because of fear since rebels had abducted people in his neighbourhood and they had not been heard of since. Other IDPs, officials in Abidjan, media and rights groups have complained of atrocities such as extrajudicial executions by the rebels, especially in early October.
Humanitarian agencies are worried that, should the situation in Cote d’Ivoire deteriorate, the capacity of governments and international organisations to assist those who want to leave the country, and vulnerable populations within it could be severely taxed.
At the latest population census, done in 1998, there were about 15.37 million people in Cote d’Ivoire, of whom some 26 percent (about 4.0 million) were foreigners. Over half, 2.2 million, were from Burkina Faso, and about 20 percent (792,258) were from Mali. The remainder came mainly from Guinea, Benin, Niger, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo, Senegal and Mauritania, in order of numerical importance.
Exodus could increase
“Should just one percent of Ivorians and 10 percent of foreigners decide to leave Cote d’Ivoire, that’s already about half-a-million people,” a humanitarian official based in a neighbouring country told IRIN.
Already, the spread of insecurity to western Cote d’Ivoire, where two towns, Danane and Man, were attacked by new rebel factions in the last week of November, has caused a fresh exodus in direction of Liberia. Many people have fled to Guinea, where arrivals topped 1,700 on 30 November and 1 December. Others have gone to Liberia, some 10, 000 of whose nationals had already returned home from Cote d’Ivoire since 19 September.
On 21 November, UN humanitarian agencies appealed jointly for US $15.9 million to cater for the needs of migrants displaced to Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Mali, those transiting through these countries on their way home, and vulnerable groups in Cote d’Ivoire. These include internally displaced persons (IDPs), host families, and people in regions occupied by insurgents. The areas covered by the appeal are food security, health, water and sanitation, protection, human rights, education, logistics and coordination.
See also the following report produced by the Global IDP Project
Cote d’Ivoire: Thousands uprooted in worsening ethnic turmoil
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