Ivory Coast / Liberia Crisis

15/04/2011

Since November 2010, a post election clash in Ivory Coast has left the country in turmoil with an ever growing quarrel between opposing factions. Growing numbers of Ivorians affected by the crisis have saught refuge in neighboring countries to escape violent outbreaks. However, destination countries such as Liberia have been struggling with this influx of refugees. After overcoming a long time civil war that ended in 2003, Liberians fear the impacts of arriving refugees on their country and that accompanying violence may destabilize their still recovering country.

The situation in Ivory Coast and Liberia has descended into a huge humanitarian disaster which requires urgent international funding.

Despite recent political developments, the humanitarian emergency remains and the needs of people affected by extreme fighting continue to escalate.  The crisis is far from over in Ivory Coast, according to HUMANITARIAN COALITION member organizations, and will require international attention for months to come. Funding is desperately needed to provide life-saving aid and to rebuild shattered communities, but the humanitarian aid pledged is so far falling dangerously short.

The conflict in Ivory Coast has already displaced more than one million people from their homes and forced around 135,000 refugees to flee to Liberia . People made homeless by violence are now in desperate need of food, water, shelter, sanitation and protection. The majority of the displaced are children, many of whom are at risk from disease and hunger. 

Guy Cave, Save the Children's Country Director for Ivory Coast said: “According to our staff on the ground, displaced children and their families are living in terrible conditions in Duekoué. There are no proper toilets and a huge lack of water, so people can't keep clean. There is massive overcrowding and people have nowhere to sleep. The risk of disease spreading is acute. This is a catastrophic situation and children need urgent help.”

Displaced people and refugees are mostly living with relatives or in strangers’ homes, causing a major stress on local food supplies. In Liberia, aid agencies are reporting a near- exhaustion of food stocks, families reducing their food consumption to one meal per day, and major increases in the price of rice and cassava in local markets. Scattered in remote and dense forest border areas between Ivory Coast and Liberia, a huge number of refugees remain incredibly vulnerable and out of reach of life-saving relief.

Tariq Riebl, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Manager in Liberia said: “Many refugees we are working with are too afraid to return home any time soon. The crisis has also severely affected the incomes of families. This is a humanitarian crisis that is likely to continue for months to come. We need to urgently expand our response to meet the escalating needs in Ivory Coast and Liberia but without the funds tens of thousands of people will go without help.”

Currently, there are more than 12,000 U.N peacekeepers in Ivory Coast. While preventing violent attacks and promoting stability are undoubtedly important, urgent relief efforts are needed to assist the survivors and to prevent violent strikes from erupting in these stress ridden environments.

The HUMANITARIAN COALITION and its members are surveying closely the situation in Liberia and Ivory Coast as they are mounting programs of intervention to assist survivors and refugees from Ivory Coast.

To stay informed of the situation, visit our member’s website regularly by following the links below and follow us on twitter at @humcoalition 

Recent updates on the crisis in Ivory Coast\Liberia