Refugees need safer place, says UNHCR

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged the Ivorian government to find a new, safer area for thousands of Liberian refugees living some 40km from the frontline between loyalist troops and rebels in western Cote d'Ivoire. In a statement on Tuesday, UNHCR said a new campsite should be identified in the southern part of the country as it was safer. It said the refugees were nervous and insisted on being moved from their current home, Nicla camp. Nicla is the only refugee camp in Cote d'Ivoire. It was originally home to 5,000 people, but its population has swollen to 8,000 since fighting started in western Cote d'Ivoire in late November. "Altogether UNHCR plans to evacuate up to 60,000 Liberian refugees who are believed to be trapped by fighting in the west of Cote d'Ivoire," the agency said. "But the Nicla population is seen as a top priority." People have also been fleeing Cote d'Ivoire for Liberia. UNHCR reported that about 53,000 people - 32,800 Liberians and 20,800 Ivorians - had been registered at various entry points in Liberia. The Ivorians have been accomodated in transit camps, while Liberians have been transferred to their hometowns and villages. UNHCR said that in recent weeks, nationals of Ghana, Nigeria, Mauritania and other West African countries had turned up in Liberia and asked to be taken to their countries' embassies in the capital, Monrovia. While there has been fighting in the west between loyalists and two rebel groups that surfaced in November, the northern front had been relatively quiet following the conclusion on 17 October of a ceasefire agreement signed by the rebel Cote d'Ivoire Patriotic Movement (MPCI) and accepted by the government. However, loyalist forces staged a helicopter attack on Tuesday against a rebel-held village a few kilometres beyond the ceasefire line, killing 12 civilians, according to the spokesman of a French military force that has been monitoring the ceasefire. The attack was condemned by the French government, which recently beefed up its force in Cote d'Ivoire from 1200 to 2500. A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday that France would demand an explanation from the Ivorian government. The MPCI also condemned the raid and threatened to stop respecting the ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived in Abidjan on Friday to push once again for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The visit is his second since the beginning of the conflict.