Seeking funds for displaced migrants

The government of Burkina Faso has asked the international community for 2.6 billion CFA (US$ 4 million) to meet the immediate and longer-term needs of 12,000 Burkinabes who returned to the country in the wake of disturbances in southwest Cote d'Ivoire, according to a UNHCR official. Violence between locals from the Kru ethnic group and Burkinabe immigrant farmers, many of whom had been in Cote d'Ivoire for more than a decade, erupted on 5 November following a dispute over land rights. "UNHCR has not made a census of the Burkinabes returning to the country from south-west Cote d'Ivoire," Emile Belem, UNHCR's programme officer in Burkina Faso, told IRIN. "The figures we have are provided by the government." He added that a recent assessment in Banfora and Gaoua, the area in southeast Burkina Faso from where most of the returnees from Tabou originated, had revealed that later arrivals were in better shape than the early ones. "The first wave arriving in Gaoua around 8 November had virtually nothing," Belem told IRIN. "Those that arrived later had more of their personal effects with them," he added. The assessment also revealed that about 80 percent of the new arrivals were women and children, Belem said. The assessment, which took place from 1 December to 3 December, included UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, UNHCR and the government body responsible for relief interventions. The returnees in Gaoua are currently receiving limited assistance from Plan International, a non-governmental organisation, Belem said.