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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D'IVOIRE: Protection becoming the central issue - McAskie
ABIDJAN, 28 April 2003 (IRIN) - Protection of refugees, displaced persons and Ivorian civilians in general is becoming the central issue around the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, the UN Humanitarian Envoy for the Crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, Carolyn McAskie on Friday said.
"The greatest need is to have better reception and living conditions for the displaced," McAskie told IRIN on Friday after a day's trip to the western towns of Man and Guiglo. She was accompanied by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Liberia Marc Destanne de Bernis and representatives of other UN agencies.
Not much, she said, had been done for the displaced persons, including the refugees and foreign nationals who have been living in the country to ensure their security and well-being. Protection, she pointed out, had also become an issue of concern in throughout the West African region.
Government
The Ivorian government, according to McAskie, had both the administrative and infrastructural facilities that could help improve the conditions of these vulnerable groups. "These people are not only forced to share very limited spaces but make their food under rather unhygienic surroundings, sleep on concrete floors with almost nothing to cover themselves, lack most basic needs, including clothing and the children don't go to school," she said.
Noting that a recent appeal by humanitarian agencies stressed the priority areas of need as food, health, protection and education, the envoy said education was an important part of protection because it ensured children were kept in school which would give the families some normality.
"The schools also provide a structure through which humanitarian agencies deliver assistance such as nutrition and school feeding programmes in which the communities get involved," she said.
She appealed to politicians to "get down to business" and start addressing the plight of thousands of civilians affected by the crisis which has taken a regional dimension.
Disappointed
McAskie who met with spokesmen of the Mouvement Patriotique de Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI), Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand Ouest (MPIGO) and that of the Mouvement pour la Justice (MJP) expressed disappointment at the rebels' "intransigence and hard-line attitude against the government".
She was, however, equally appalled by the reports of attacks by forces loyal to the government and urged that the attacks stop. "The attacks are not acceptable especially as the search for peace continues. But all in all, something has to be done because no one side is less guilty than the other."
The envoy expressed deep concern over reports of civilian casualties resulting from fighting and helicopter attacks. She also expressed regret at the attack on and the looting of the Burulli Ulcer Centre in Zouan-Hounien, near the Ivorian border with Liberia. "Such indiscriminate targeting of civilians and of medical facilities, is entirely unacceptable," she said. According to Medecins sans frontieres and Medecins du Monde, at least 50 civilians who said they were victims of attacks on 15 April, were treated at the Man hospital. At least eight of them died.
Access
Since her last visit to Cote d'Ivoire and neighbouring countries in January, McAskie noted that access by humanitarian agencies had extended to areas that were then inaccessible. The World Food Programme (WFP) was now operating out of a UN inter-agency office in Man, had begun assessing humanitarian needs and launched emergency feeding for the displaced and other food insecure and vulnerable groups affected by the crisis, including a school feeding programme. UNCEF was also working in the region. However, McAskie pointed out: "There are still certain areas where reports of riots by young people and looting are received making such places inaccessible."
Displacement
Due to the recent attacks in areas neighbouring thousands of people some Ivorians and many foreign nationals who have been living in the country working in the plantations are displaced in the area. Many are reportedly staying with host communities or hiding in the bush. Local authorities and NGOs said there was still a steady stream of people fleeing sporadic fighting and insecurity in the area. Majority of the inhabitants of transit centres visited by the team in Guiglo and Man were people from Burkina Faso. Other nationals, including Malians and Guineans were there too.
Liberian refugees
The situation of Liberian refugees remains of concern to the humanitarian agencies. Representatives of the refugees living at Guiglo's Nicla camp presented statements to the envoy and her entourage in which they reiterated urgent calls to be evacuated from this area.
"Women and children have no place to go," a representative of the women said. "We can't sleep because we hear firing and yet we can't leave because we have no travel documents and there is no where to go because the whole area in infiltrated." Women are also exploited in various ways, including becoming sex slaves, prostitutes and girls joining rebel ranks, she added.
"Nicla is not a refugee camp but a military base. There are armed men patrolling the camp 24 hours, there are sporadic shots, refugees are terrified...we need immediate evacuation," the youth representative said. He said the camp was infiltrated with rebels and that the refugees were being used as human shields. "Recruitments are made easy because of lack of food and means of livelihood and some refugees take up arms for fear of reprisal," he added.
McAskie said: "I am very moved by your stories. I and all of us will keep trying to get a safer place for you. But even as we do so, we must also try to ensure security for you while you are here. I will try my best and explore all the options."
Refugee rights violated
The UN Coordinator for Liberia Marc de Bernis described the situation of the Liberian refugees as depressing. He told IRIN on Friday that the international law and rights of refugees were being violated at Nicla camp, adding that the Ivorian government needed to make necessary efforts to secure the camp and make sure that camps were not used in any way in contravention to the international law.
"The best solution would be to repatriate them back home, but this is not possible now. The only immediate option would be to move the camp to another place in the country especially considering that the camp is on the border area," he said. According to De Bernis, his mission to the west gave him an opportunity to better understand the situation of Liberians trapped in this area especially considering that the situation on the Liberian side of the border was also been very fluid.
Meanwhile the spokesman of the Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand Ouest (MPIGO) Ousmane Coulibaly told the delegation that its positions, as well as the ones of the other western rebel group, the Mouvement pour la Justice et la paix, had come under attack by government forces for several weeks. "We demand that the government immediately stop attacking our positions", Coulibaly told the delegation, adding that his movement, as well as the other rebel groups, were committed to the peace process and would work with the international commuinty to ensure an integral application of the Paris Accord signed in late January.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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