CÔTE D'IVOIRE (20 February)
Up to one million people have been displaced by the conflict that began with an attempted coup on September 19, 2002. Fighting broke out first in the capital Abidjan and the northern cities Bouake and Korogho and later in the west around Man. In Abidjan, thousands of people living in the shanty town areas were displaced when government forces burnt houses in a search of rebels. At least 800 000 people fled south from the north and center of the country and 300 000 had been displaced in the area around the western town of Man. Another 200 000, mostly migrant workers from neighbouring Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia and Mali have left the country. Displacement has continued to take place in various parts of the country rendering more and more people vulnerable and in desperate conditions.
A reduction in rice (total production estimated at 617 000 tonnes before the rebellion began) and other cereals is forecast this year as a result of unfavourable weather and the conflict that forced many farmers to leave their land and disrupted marketing activities. The regions most affected by the conflict in the north (Bouaké, Katiola, Bouna and Korhogo) usually provide about 80 per cent of national production of yams, 40 pour cent of rice, and most of the millet, sorghum and fonio. Crops have reportedly been rotting in fields.
A serious food supply situation is reported for the vulnerable people in the areas controlled by the rebels and for the displaced persons in transit centres. In the rebel-held central town of Bouake, over 60 percent of families do not have any income while the remainder have lost 80 percent of their purchasing power. Apart from nutritional imbalances, access to medical facilities and medicine is very poor and expensive. WFP has launched a Regional Emergency Operation to assist some 170 000 people affected by the conflict for an initial period of five months. The bulk of this operation will take place in Côte d’Ivoire but will also cover neighbouring countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Ghana. While the conflict victims in central and northern areas have been provided with relief food through humanitarian corridors established by WFP in November, safe access to the west remains a critical source of concern to humanitarian agencies. In early February WFP was assisting approximately 91 000 vulnerable people including 46 000 persons in Bouaké and surrounding villages, 18 600 IDPs in Daloa and Duekoué and 7 000 IDPs in Yamoussoukro and surrounding villages.