Calm returns to troubled area, authorities say

Over 2,000 persons have been displaced following unrest during municipal elections on 25 March in Zouan-Hounien, a district in southwestern Cote d’Ivoire, an official source reported. According to Cote d’Ivoire’s Office National de Protection Civile (National Civil Protection Office), a rumour that people from the Malinke ethnic group were attacking Yacoubas led to the displacement of 2,153 persons. The rumour started after a voter from the Yacouba community, indigenous to the area, was seriously wounded in a fight in a polling station with an election officer of the Malinke ethnic group from northern Cote d’Ivoire. {Malinkes also live in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.) Of the displaced persons, 1,380 are Ivorians, while there are 96 Malians, 600 Guineans, 68 Liberians, four Burkinabe and five Cameroonians. The displaced have been taken in by host families, according to the Civil protection office, which said Zouan-Hounien is now totally calm as a result of the intervention of the prefect of Danane - under whose jurisdiction the area falls - traditional chiefs and politicians. In the past two years, southwestern Cote d’Ivoire has been affected by periodic bouts of displacement triggered by conflicts between indigenes and people from outside the region. In November 1999, about 12,000 Burkinabe were displaced from the Tabou area, on the border with Liberia. In July 2000, another 300 people had to leave Soubre, northeast of Tabou, and in November 2000, over 1,100 people were displaced from Grand Berebi, east of Tabou.