Most of the displaced are living in makeshift shelters,
offering little protection from the short rainy season now
beginning.
Many among them have either been evicted from privately-owned
sites where they sought refuge in the post-electoral violence early
this year or are about to face eviction.
Fourteen IDP sites have been closed in the past few months,
forcing 800 families into secondary displacement or seeking shelter
with host communities. Another 15 sites currently hosting 1,250
families are under imminent threat of eviction.
Pressure on IDPs to leave camps has grown as private owners of
empty buildings, including churches and schools, try to regain
their property. The growing number of evictions is also adding to
the human insecurity and health of the IDPs with many suffering
grief and stress-related conditions.
An estimated 600,000 people were sheltering in displacement
camps at the peak of the post-election conflict in April 2011.
According to IOM, which collects and provides key information on
internal displacement in Côte d’Ivoire to the humanitarian
community working there, this number has fallen dramatically to
nearly 26,000 people in 35 sites.
IOM is currently managing 10 IDP sites in Guiglo and Duékoué in
the western region of Moyen Cavally sheltering more than 17,100
IDPs. They represent 66 per cent of the total number of those still
displaced.
Those still living in displacement sites are mainly people
whose homes were destroyed in the conflict or those who fear that
people now occupying their land will refuse to leave as a result of
long-standing inter-ethnic and land-tenure issues. However, the
number of displaced people living with host communities is still
believed to be high.
Those IDPs who have returned to their homes have done so either
because the security situation in their area is more stable or
because they need to harvest crops and plant for the next
season.
However, their situation is also dire having returned to
villages where many houses were damaged or destroyed and key
community infrastructure such as schools, health centres and wells
either looted or no longer working.
“Transitional shelter is urgently needed for the displaced,
particularly for those who want to return to their home villages
but can’t because their homes were destroyed,” says David Coomber,
IOM Chief of Mission in Côte d’Ivoire. “In parallel, ethnic and
land issues have also to be resolved in a durable way if we are to
avoid seeing a repetition of conflict and forced migration.
”IOM is beginning work on providing transitional shelter to some
of the internally displaced and returnees. In a bid to promote
greater social cohesion in a region that has been witness to
long-standing tension and conflict fuelled by land tenure issues
between native Ivoirians and migrant workers from the sub-region,
the Organization, together with other agencies, is also planning on
carrying out additional “Go and See” visits for those considering
returning home. This is in addition to carrying out assessment
missions to various areas to gauge on-going humanitarian
needs.
IOM is also mediating between the different ethnic communities
to ensure children are allowed into schools or bringing women
together in discussion groups to tackle pressing and social
issues.
“Our focus is on recovery. However, to make significant
inroads on finding durable solutions, these actions have to be
dramatically scaled up. For that, we desperately need funding.
There will be new elections in December this year which could
result in renewed instability or conflict if concrete actions are
not taken now,” Coomber adds.
Since it launched an appeal for US$ 41.6 million for its
operations in Côte d’Ivoire and four neighbouring countries, early
this year, it has received just under US$ 4 million in total. This
has come from the US State Department’s Bureau of Population,
Refugees and Migration (PRM), the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (Sida), the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund
(CERF), the EU’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) and
the Australian Agency for International Development (Aus AID).
For more information on IDPs and IDP sites in Cote
d’Ivoire, please find reports on the latest situation on IOM’s
website http://www.cccmivoire.com
or contact Gabriel Mathieu, IOM Cote D’Ivoire, Tel : +225
04-58-65-38 gmathieu@iom.int
