The group of an estimated 16,000 people displaced by post-election violence are in Danané, Duékoué and Man in Western Cote D’Ivoire. The majority are in a Catholic mission in Duékoué and comprise mainly women and children. Several agencies are currently working to provide humanitarian assistance to the group, including IOM, which in addition to registering the displaced, is also organizing a hosting site for them. A distribution of non-food items from the Organization’s remaining stock in the country is scheduled in the coming days.
The assistance is part of IOM operations now underway in Cote D’Ivoire and surrounding countries to help internally displaced, refugees and migrants affected by the crisis in the West African country, in collaboration with authorities, the UN and other partners.
Tomorrow, IOM will transport a group of 52 Ivorian refugees to a refugee camp in Guinea at the request of UNHCR. They will be taken from the Boussou Transit centre on the Guinea-Cote D’Ivoire border to the Kouankan 2 refugee camp in the Forestière region of Guinea some 180 kilometres away. The refugees, with IOM and Red Cross medical and Guinean police escort, will be taken to the camp by bus. Last week, IOM helped 82 Ivorian refugees in a similar operation to Kouankan 2.
Also at the request of UNHCR, IOM will be assisting a group of 652 people, mainly Guineans who have returned from Cote d’Ivoire, to go to their areas of origin. The group are currently in Beyla town in south eastern Guinea.
A joint IOM/UNHCR mission travelled to the area at the weekend to register the returnees and to assess the situation as Beyla Prefecture is reported to be overwhelmed by the numbers of returnees and refugees that have crossed into the territory.
Late last week, IOM and UN partners carried out a joint assessment of various points on Cote d’Ivoire’s borders with Mali and Ghana. Two possible sites at Faragouaran and Zantiebougou in Sikasso Region and Bougouni Cercle in Mali are being assessed for receiving and assisting potential Malian returnees.
IOM has been formally requested by Burkina Faso, Mali and Liberia to assist their nationals to return to their respective home countries if the situation escalates with the Organization working with national disaster agencies in all five surrounding countries including Guinea and Ghana to assist in the reception and reintegration of returning nationals from Cote d’Ivoire.
Preparations are underway to help tens of thousands of migrants in Cote D’Ivoire to return to their homes in the five neighbouring countries, all of whom will need reception and reintegration assistance upon arrival. In a worst case scenario, estimates for possible returns include 200,000 to Burkina Faso, 150,000 to Mali, 50,000 to Guinea, 25,000 to Liberia and 20,000 to Ghana.
The Organization is urgently appealing for an initial US$ 3.5 million to carry out its operations to register and assist the displaced in western Cote d’Ivoire; help up to 25,000 Liberian nationals to return home; track and assess the needs of mobile people including stranded migrants and third country nationals inside Cote D'Ivoire; train border guards in Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Ghana on protecting migrants and to help Ivorian refugees and Guinean migrants with medical and transport assistance to Guinea.
For further information, please contact Jean Philippe Chauzy, IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 79 285 4366/+ 41 22 717 9361, email: pchauzy@iom.int or Jemini Pandya, IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9486/+ 41 79 285 4366, email: jpandya@iom.int
