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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

COTE D'IVOIRE: Population movement continues

ABIDJAN, 26 February 2003 (IRIN) - The population movement from Cote d'Ivoire towards Liberia, brought on by the five-month-old Ivorian crisis, has continued, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.

UNHCR said that over the last 10 days over 43,000 Liberians who had been registered as refugees in Cote d'Ivoire had returned to their home country by their own means, "despite the continued instability in Liberia itself". Another 2,250 refugees went back under UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programme.

The refugee agency also reported that some 36,000 Ivorian refugees who had fled to Liberia preferred to stay in border areas, hoping to go back as soon as the fighting subsided. The overpopulation of these areas combined with a lack of adequate food and medical care would make the displaced more susceptible to diseases such as malaria, meningitis and yellow fever, UNHCR Spokesman Kris Janowski said in a briefing on Tuesday in Geneva.

Janowski said the agency was still searching for a new host country for thousands of refugees, mainly Liberians, who no longer felt secure in Cote d'Ivoire.

Cote d'Ivoire's crisis began in September when an uprising by disgruntled soldiers developed into a rebellion. Within weeks, the country had been split in two, with the state controlling the south and northeast, while the rebel Movement patriotique de Cote d'Ivoire controlled most of the north.

By November, two more rebel groups had emerged, both operating in the west, along the border with Liberia and Guinea. While a truce signed in October has held in the north, instability has continued in parts of the west, displacing thousands of people.

An agreement concluded three weeks ago in Linas-Marcoussis, Paris, three weeks ago was meant to facilitate a resolution of the Ivorian crisis. However, the government of national reconciliation which it provides for has not yet been established despite the selection of a consensus prime minister. The main bone of contention, sources said, has been the question of rebel representation in the government.

Themes: (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs

[ENDS]

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