Critical shortage of food, water, medicine in Bouake

Relief agencies that reached rebel-held areas in Cote d'Ivoire have found that access to food, water and medicine are of critical concern, aid workers said on Thursday. The markets in Bouake were now empty with residents having run out of food stocks, they said. Prior to this the prices of basic food items hard risen making them inaccessible to most of the population. About 100,000 to 150,000 people were found to have abandoned their homes for neighbouring villages and towns including Bayoukro, Sakassou and Bakala. Now Bouake has about 500,000 compared to 600,000 prior to the events, the relief sources said. They quoted local administrators as saying many of their residents had sought refuge. The National Red Cross had been transporting sick people from their homes to medical dispensaries where they could receive assistance. Most residents were afraid to walk to the health centres, ICRC added. It is currently assessing the needs of some 700 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Bayoukro which is west of Bouake who are being hosted at the Catholic Mission that also has a hospital facility. Bouake was "relatively calm but not yet catastrophic but gradually deteriorating", relief sources said. They told IRIN on Thursday that mutineers had taken control of the town of Seguela and were enrolling youths into their ranks. They had taken some gendarmes hostage, including the commandant of the gendarmerie camp and were reportedly planning to proceed to the western towns of Man and Daloa. In the northeastern town of Bouna, the atmosphere was calm but sources said the rebels were around the town and that some of the population had fled with their arrival. The situation in the northern town of Korhogo had not changed, according to a source in the town on Wednesday. He said people seemed to be accustomed to the new situation. "There is no problem of electricity, no problem of water but the civil servants are complaining that they are short of money and want the government to do something for them." In the commercial capital, Abidjan, humanitarian workers said the torching of houses in what government says are mop-up operations, continued on Monday with the burning of a shantytown - Belingue 3 situated between Abidjan's up market suburbs of Cocody and Riviera Golf. Humanitarian workers who visited the site which had some 600 inhabitants said people displaced from the area needed protection, shelter, health care, food, water and sanitation. Meanwhile, mediators, including foreign ministers from six nations met with mutineers in Bouake on Thursday afternoon, news agencies reported. Britain's Minister for Africa, Baroness Amos on Wednesday welcomed efforts of ECOWAS to mediate between rebel forces and the government. "I am very pleased that Cote d'Ivoire's own neighbours are playing a leading role in seeking a peaceful solution to the uprising. We strongly support the search for an early settlement enabling the return of all those who have been displaced by the fighting," she said. "We want to see stability restored in Cote d'Ivoire so that the process of national reconciliation can be resumed at the earliest opportunity," she added.