WFP appeals for $16 million for new emergency

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday launched an appeal for US $16 million to fund a new emergency operation to assist more than 500,000 people in various parts of Cote d'Ivoire, particularly in the west, for the next eight months. Describing the humanitarian situation in Western Cote d'Ivoire as "disastrous", Gemmo Lodesani WFP's regional coordinator, told reporters at the appeal launch in the Ivorian city of Abidjan that the food situation had deteriorated all over the country. "Hundreds of thousands of people are already confronting food shortages caused by the civil unrest over the last few months. Their difficulties are going to be compounded by the onset of the lean season," he said. "Safe access for relief workers to assist people in areas affected by the fighting remains a critical concern of WFP and all the humanitarian agencies," he added. WFP said it was targeting Liberian refugees, internally displaced persons and families hosting them. But also at risk were the unemployed, marginal wage earners and their dependants. It was also targeting 300,000 pupils out of the total number of 500,000 people through the school feeding programmes. "Armed incursions continue in Liberia and western Cote d'Ivoire, more people are being displaced, trapped and cut from sources of income and food," Lodesani said. Certain areas in the west, he added, could however experience rapid return to the villages although people could also opt to live in bigger towns before finally returning to their homes. "If people returning to their villages are not assisted to start a normal life, Cote d'Ivoire may soon fall back into chaos and conflict," he warned. "So many things have to be built or rebuilt in a short time if the hope of peace is to be fulfilled," he added. On Monday, the UN Secretary-General's Special envoy to Cote d'Ivoire, Albert Tevoedjre, and UNHCR's Panos Moumtzis who represented agencies in the protection field and WFP's Lodesani, visited western Cote d'Ivoire. They said several villages and towns, including Zouan Hounien, Mahapleu, Bangolo, Bin Houye were completely empty. The people, they added, had fled their homes and were in temporary sites for the displaced people or living with host families in Yamoussoukro, Abidjan, Guiglo, Daloa, Tabou, and others had crossed the border to Liberia while others were hiding in the bush.