Increasing number of civilians flee war zones

Three weeks after the 19 September failed coup d'etat, the number of civilians fleeing Cote d'Ivoire's "war zones" was increasing rapidly and the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro, was by Friday turning into a transit town for the displaced. The secretary general of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mohammed Ibn Chambas, was expected to return to the commercial capital, Abidjan, on Saturday to re-start peace negotiations between the government and rebellious soldiers controlling the "war zones", news reports said. President Laurent Gbagbo had on Tuesday said he was not opposed to talks as long the rebels first disarmed. He also said the ECOWAS chairman President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal had suggested a new peace proposal. In Yamoussoukro, four hundred people arrived on Thursday at St. Augustin cathedral from Bouake, 111 km to the north, church officials said. Some had walked through the bushes. The number, mostly women and children, was the largest to arrive at the town in a single day. They told church workers that "several hundreds were still on their way". Their displacement was motivated by "fears of an attack" on the besieged town of Bouake, they told Church officials. Some 114 people had arrived on Wednesday. A few rooms have been temporarily converted into sleeping rooms, Cathedral officials said. As at 9 October, the cathedral had received 1,065 people of whom 603 were women, 232 children and 230 men. Yamoussoukro's Catholic Diocesan Center has also been transformed into a shelter area and had received 450 people. Some of them were from the northern town of Korhogo, 353 km from Yamoussoukro. A logistics base was being established by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Yamoussoukro "to respond to the unfolding crisis in the northern areas of the country". Plans were being made to provide emergency food aid rations to 2,000 displaced people. WFP, in a press statement in Abidjan on Friday, also reported that together with its partners, it was assessing the food aid needs of nearly 10,000 displaced immigrant workers in the western Man region. These included 6,500 people in Duekoue town. It was discussing with the Burkina Faso government a mechanism to cater for a massive return of immigrants from Cote d'Ivoire, of whom some 4,500 had reportedly already arrived in Burkina Faso. WFP said five transit centers would be set up and assistance would be provided for two months. A mechanism was also being set up in Mali to respond to possible return of Malians, of whom 4,000 had already crossed back. "The UN Country Team has mapped out available resources in the country and put together a set of Reponses for the Malians," the WFP statement said. Similar discussions were going on with Ghana. "The WFP food stocks in Ghana are very limited and by next week 40 tons of emergency food rations and high energy biscuits will be airlifted to the country," WFP said. In Yamoussoukro, church officials said food, accommodation and medical attention ranked as the most urgent needs as some walked for days with little or no food. Most of the displaced, they said, were on "transit" and would be assisted to join their families in the economic hub Abidjan or other major towns. The Ivorian Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security, The Red Cross, NGOs such as CARITAS and Medecins sans Frontieres, the District of Yamoussoukro, some business owners and others had been providing aid to the displaced. A UN inter-agency humanitarian needs assessment of the displaced was being conducted in the areas around Yamoussoukro, Bouake and neighbouring towns.