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Nearly 400,000 Ivorians displaced, fighters target UN agencies

by George Fominyen | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 4 March 2011 20:04 GMT

UN says escalating violence is making it hard for aid workers to do their job

DAKAR (AlertNet) - Escalating post-election violence in Ivory Coast has uprooted around 370,000 people, according to the United Nations which warned that humanitarian access is shrinking fast as the country teeters on the brink of civil war.

Aid workers say rising insecurity is making it hard to reach vulnerable people and supporters of incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo are targeting U.N. agencies, confusing them with the U.N. peacekeeping force ONUCI.

An estimated 200,000 people have been displaced in Abidjan alone, following days of heavy clashes in the city’s Abobo district, according to the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR.

“The fighting needs to stop because there are victims who may be injured and need assistance,” said Monique Okhan, UNHCR protection officer in Abidjan.

Some of the displaced are staying with friends and relatives, but large numbers have sought shelter in communal places like churches and need urgent help, she added.

UNHCR is particularly concerned about a group of 60 families trapped inside a church without proper food, water or sanitation, and has appealed for fighters to let them out.

The violence has pitted pro-Gbagbo forces against supporters of his rival Alassane Ouattara, the man internationally recognised as having won November’s presidential election.

Gbagbo has refused to hand over power to Ouattara, who remains holed up in an Abidjan hotel, protected by U.N. troops.

"HARD TO DO OUR JOBS"

The estimated number displaced in the west of the country has risen to 70,000 following renewed clashes and another 70,000 people have fled across the border to Liberia.

“With the prevailing anti-U.N. sentiments among some members of the population we are being confused for ONUCI and are being targeted,” Okhan added, referring to UNHCR and other U.N. agencies.

“It is difficult to intervene. If we continue to have youths regularly blocking our movement, it becomes hard to do our jobs. We are trying to tell people that we are not political, we are there to provide relief to people who need help.”

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) also said U.N. and other humanitarian services were being targeted by Gbagbo supporters.

IOM special envoy Eugenio Ambrosi called for both sides in the fighting to allow aid workers to circulate freely.

“Neither (side) should use the humanitarian situation as part of its tools of war by preventing the populations from having access to relief," he said.

Ambrosi said large parts of the country were without water and electricity, exacerbating difficulties even for those who are not displaced.

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