Keep borders open, Lubbers urges neighbours

Warning of a looming humanitarian crisis, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers on Tuesday called on West African countries neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire to keep their borders open to innocent civilians caught in the fighting in the country. The Liberian government on Monday announced the closure of its border with Cote d'Ivoire "as a precautionary measure to prevent the entry into Cote d'Ivoire of any person or group of persons". Reuters quoted Foreign Minister Monie Captan as saying the border would however remain open to refugees, including Ivorians and Liberian returnees. All the persons crossing the border would be screened thoroughly for armed groups and infiltrators, Captan indicated. "I urge all parties to exercise restraint," Lubbers said in a statement. "The situation in West Africa is already bad enough. We cannot afford to see more misery in the region," he urged. The agency, he said, was alarmed by reports that basic humanitarian principles were being ignored and that refugees were being drawn to the conflict. "I appeal to all governments in the region to allow free passage to refugees and civilians fleeing violence," Lubbers said. While incidents of refugees being barred entry into a neighbouring country remain isolated, UNHCR fears that a worsening crisis might prompt governments to seal their frontiers in the event of massive outflows, according the statement. Exodus could occur UNHCR is worried that if fighting spreads further, refugees might be forced to join an exodus from Cote d’Ivoire that could include some of the millions of migrant workers from surrounding countries that are themselves impoverished and unstable. Cote d'Ivoire has sheltered 70,000 Liberian and 3,000 Sierra Leonean refugees for years. Since fighting broke out on 19 September at least 25,000 refugees and civilians have left Cote d'Ivoire, UNHCR said. Of that number, 19,000 Liberians and 2,000 Ivorians went to Liberia. Since Friday, about 400 people have arrived daily in Liberia most of them returning refugees, the agency said. The arrivals came from western Cote d'Ivoire towns of Danane, Man and Toulepleu where intense fighting has been going on since 28 November. The three towns near the country's border with Liberia and Guinea host around 45,000 of the refugees in Cote d'Ivoire. UNHCR has been unable to establish contact with refugees in Danane and Man region or to dispatch staff to the area since last week because of the conflict, it added. Humanitarian response A situation update from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian of Affairs (OCHA) Liberia on Monday, reported that UNHCR had deployed agencies working with it to the border and called on its emergency response team in Geneva to respond. Security situation at the border areas remained calm and registration of returnees and refugees was going on smoothly. Some 30 Ivorian solders who fled the fighting in the western Cote d'Ivoire and crossed into Liberia had been transported to Monrovia and would be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross for repatriation, OCHA noted. WFP had over the weekend, sent 5 mt of high-energy biscuits as initial response and was planning to provide other food commodities as well, OCHA said. UNHCR had also sent 13 trucks to transport people from border points of Loukatuo, Borplay, Butuo, Belawale, Toes town, Bia and Jorzon to Kanplay in Nimba County, which serves as transit center. With the help of the European Union, additional 10 trucks had been deployed to the area. The trucks transport the people from the border points to the transit center at Kanplay and further to villages/towns of origin in Liberia, it added. In the commercial capital Abidjan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) repatriated 44 Sierra Leonean refugees to Freetown, Sierra Leone, between 30 November and 1 December. This was the second such repatriation undertaken by IOM and the UNHCR, the organisation said in a briefing on Tuesday. Fourteen of the refugees fled the western town of Danane before it fell into rebel hands, 23 were from the neighbouring town of Guiglo and seven from Abidjan, it added. Curfew extended Meanwhile, the Ivorian government on Tuesday extended the curfew from 3 December to 10 December. It would be observed as follows: In Abidjan District, from 1900 to 0600 [GMT]; in the departments declared war zones, from 1800 to 0800; throughout the remainder of the national territory, from 2100 to 0600. In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau told journalists on Tuesday that: "The way out of the crisis took another step forward today with the meeting in Bamako, chaired by President Amadou Toumani Toure, of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore", AFP quoted him as saying. He confirmed that a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was planned for Saturday 7 December in Accra "to discuss the continuation of the process". The French army on Tuesday carried out another evacuation of French nationals and members of the international community in western Cote d'Ivoire, in Touba, around 50 km north of Man, AFP said. Two recently emerged rebel groups in the country - Ivorian Populaire Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) and Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) said they wanted to join forces with the main rebellion - Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire, (MPCI), which wants President Laurent Gbagbo to step down, BBC reported on Tuesday. The government said on Monday it had retaken the town of Man from MPJ rebels.