?We think we have done well in the areas where we planned to intervene and we did not plan to stay for more than one year" -Oxfam
DAKAR (AlertNet) – Oxfam has pulled out of Ivory Coast, saying despite the progress made after last year’s post-election violence, humanitarian needs were still significant in the West African country
“We have closed our programmes and activities and left Ivory Coast this week but we recognize that the humanitarian crisis is far from over, “ Philippe Conraud, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator for West Africa, told AlertNet in Dakar.
“We had decided from the start that we would not stay forever in Ivory Coast because we had simply come to fill gaps in humanitarian response,” he added.
Oxfam launched activities in Ivory Coast in April at the height of inter-communal violence and fighting between troops loyal to President Alassane Ouattara and forces that backed former president Laurent Gbagbo who had refused to cede power after losing a presidential in November 2010.
More than 3,000 people were killed and about 1 million were uprooted from their homes during the four-month conflict.
Aid groups say since fighting ended after Gbagbo’s arrest in April, security has improved but underlying tensions linked to political and ethnic differences and disputes over land remain a concern, particularly in the west of the country along the border with Liberia.
“It is not completely fine but there is progress – schools have reopened, hospitals are working again, and we think that there are more vulnerable countries in the region where the needs are far more dire than Ivory Coast,” Conraud said.
Analysts say donors have been slow in responding to funding appeals for the Ivorian crisis forcing several aid groups to either draw from their core funds to run activities or re-consider their involvement in the country.
A U.N. -led emergency humanitarian appeal launched in April (and revised in July) to raise $292 million for activities in Ivory Coast and neighbouring countries that witnessed an influx of refugees is only 36 percent funded to date.
“It (lack of funding) isn’t the principal reason why we have left,” Conraud said. “We think we have done well in the areas where we planned to intervene and we did not plan to stay for more than one year,” he added.
Oxfam says its activities to provide clean water and improved hygiene and sanitation as well as seeds for farming and assistance to people willing to rebuild their livelihoods destroyed during fighting, reached more than 80,000 people in Ivory Coast.
The management of these activities has been transferred to relevant Ivorian government services as well as other non-governmental organizations and U.N. agencies still operating in Ivory Coast, Conraud said.
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