A U.N. appeal for Ivory Coast is barely 18 percent funded while the appeal for Liberia is just 29 percent funded
DAKAR (AlertNet) - Despite Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara's promise to restore security in the country after his rival Laurent Gbagbo was ousted, the needs of Ivorians caught up in weeks of political violence are escalating with funds for the humanitarian response lacking, aid agencies say.
Conflict triggered by a power struggle between Gbagbo and Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of last November's presidential election has killed about 1,500 people, uprooted more than 1 million and forced around 135,000 refugees to flee into neighbouring Liberia alone.
A coalition of 13 aid groups said people made homeless by the violence, the majority of them children, are now in dire need of food, water, sanitation and protection. Many risk hunger and disease due to poor living conditions.
“There is massive overcrowding and people have nowhere to sleep,” said Guy Cave, who heads Save the Children in Ivory Coast said of a site at a Catholic mission in Duekoue 600 km west of Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan.
“The risk of disease spreading is acute. This is a catastrophic situation and children need urgent help."
Despite huge numbers of refugees and displaced, a $160 million U.N. appeal for Ivory Coast is barely 18 percent funded while the $146.5 million U.N. humanitarian appeal for Liberia has received just 29 percent of the funds requested.
“Funding is desperately needed to provide life-saving aid and to rebuild shattered communities, but the humanitarian aid pledged so far has fallen dangerously short,” the aid groups said in a statement.
U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said major reconciliation efforts would be needed among Ivory Coast's ethnic and political groups for refugees and the displaced to return home. Many displaced have also told UNHCR that they were waiting to see security restored to their home areas before returning.
MEDICAL STAFF FEEL POWERLESS
Most internally displaced people and refugees are living with poor relatives and host families, who are running out of food. Aid agencies say this is particularly disturbing in Liberia where host families are eating only one meal per day because their supplies are getting exhausted.
The fighting also prevented the supply of medicines to treat the injured and the sick and hospitals lack therapeutic food to treat malnutrition. UNICEF, which sending enough medical kits to allow health workers to treat 40,000 people over the next three months, said supplies of essential medicines had been looted in several places.
"Medical staff are in place, but are no longer receiving their wages and feel powerless without the medical equipment they need to treat their patients. It is essential to get health centres the provisions they need,” said Vincent Taillandier, a desk officer for France-based aid group, Action Contre la Faim (ACF).
Meanwhile, several cities in Ivory Coast are running out of safe drinking water and could be hit by outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera in the coming days, aid agencies warn.
In Abidjan, the pipes supplying water to several neighbourhoods were damaged during the fighting while water treatment chemicals are in short supply in the west of the country, affecting the quality of water being supplied to people.
UNICEF says there is a high risk of measles and cholera outbreaks and preparations are underway to resume immunisations as quickly as possible.
The aid coalition that issued the statement late on Thursday comprises Action contre la Faim (ACF), Care France, Handicap International, International Rescue Committee (IRC), International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Oxfam, Plan International, Première Urgence - Aide Médicale Internationale (PU-AMI), Save the Children, Secours catholique - Caritas France, Solidarités International and Trocaire.
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