People in the west are still experiencing a lot of inter-communal violence over land rights, says MSF
DAKAR (AlertNet) - Security in western Ivory Coast is still dire, even though violence in the rest of the country has eased following weeks of clashes over disputed presidential elections, an official of the medical relief group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Wednesday.
Xavier Simon, the head of the Belgian arm of MSF in Ivory Coast, said people in the west are still experiencing a lot of inter-communal violence over land rights.
Since fighting escalated in March, hundreds of people have been killed in the region and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes. Aid groups say they have discovered several mass graves.
"We have had really frightful testimony from displaced persons who were hiding in the bush and who saw people being raped, abducted and killed in the forest," Simon told AlertNet.
"These people [in the bush] have no access to water, food and shelter and are very scared of coming out of hiding because of the inter-communal violence," he added.
More than 140,000 people have fled the west of Ivory Coast to neighbouring Liberia, and another 70,000 have sought refuge with host families and the compounds of churches and some aid groups.
Simon said about 27,000 people who have taken refuge in an overcrowded Catholic mission in the western Ivory Coast town of Duekoue literally have to sleep on top of one another at night. The mission is housing about three people per square metre (one square metre equals 10 square feet) and they have to make use of every bit of space.
MSF and other aid groups who have been helping the displaced have warned that conditions are deteriorating. They say there is a serious risk of disease, including an outbreak of measles, but the displaced are unwilling to leave because of fear of violence.
"They prefer to remain in these tight and unhealthy conditions than to return to their homes - which are just a few hundred metres away for some - and this tells you that the security situation is still uncomfortable," Simon said on the phone from Abidjan.
People in the west will need help for months to come, he said.
Security in the country's main city Abidjan – which saw some of the worst clashes – is slowly improving, apart from the neighbourhood of Yopougon where fighting continues between Ivorian security forces and youth militia backing former president Laurent Gbagbo, Simon said.
He said aid groups are able to move more freely now than during the two weeks of fighting that led to the capture of Gbagbo by soldiers loyal to his rival Alassane Ouattara on April 11. MSF says it has been able to resume delivery of medical supplies to hospitals in the city.
However, people are in dire need of health care and are queuing up at hospitals.
Ivorian authorities have ordered free access to health care from April 16 to the end of May as part of measures to improve access for millions of Abidjan residents who were trapped in their homes for weeks by the fighting.
"It is a good sign because people who could not access health care because they had no finance could have access now. But the real problem is that even if treatment and medicines are free, there are very few drugs available on the market," Simon said.
Economic sanctions - imposed by the international community when Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara - have prevented imports of medical supplies, and medicines are scarce across Ivory Coast.
Ouattara won last November's elections according to U.N. certified results.
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