Humanitarian needs assessment in Bouake

An inter-agency mission was scheduled to go into the Ivorian capital, Yamoussoukro and proceed to the city of Bouake on Thursday, to assess humanitarian needs in some of the areas that have borne the brunt of fighting between government troops and rebel fighters since 19 September. An advance team consisting of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UNICEF and the World Food Programme arrived in Yamoussoukro on Tuesday, OCHA reported. The team, it added, had started to assess conditions of internally displaced people in the capital. The findings, OCHA added, would serve as a basis for developing a common multi-disciplinary response to the crisis from the humanitarian community in Cote d'Ivoire. The situation in the rebel-held towns of Bouake and Korhogo remained unclear. News reports said rebel soldiers continued to wield control over the cities, despite government attempts to retake Bouake on Sunday and Monday. President Laurent Gbagbo in a national address on Tuesday said he supported dialogue and a peaceful resolution of the crisis but was not willing to offer the assailants de-facto recognition and legitimacy. "Accepting to sit at the same table as armed assailants, marching on my country, I can not do. I hope that all of Cote d'Ivoire's friends understand this point of view," Gbagbo said. The president called on Ivorians not to harass foreigners. "They are not the ones at the origin of our problems. Among the assailants, there are Ivorians", he said. West African nationals, he said, were not to be targeted, telling Ivorians that their "fight is to free our country and not to attack foreigners". Gbagbo said that 'mop-up' operations in Abidjan shantytowns, which had displaced thousands of Ivorians and foreigners, shall cease and those affected would be compensated by being relocated. The destruction of the shanty-towns has been one of the main concerns of the humanitarian community because it left people without shelter. Meanwhile the Ivorian national Red Cross society has also mobilized its 39 branches throughout the country, including those in Daloa, Yamoussoukro, Korhogo and Ferke which it said could provide first aid to victims of the conflict. The Ivorian crisis started on 19 September when mutinous soldiers staged a coup attempt. While they were beaten off in Abidjan, the rebel soldiers have since maintained control of several towns in the north. At least 400 people are estimated to have been killed. Hundreds of thousands more are displaced.