Returnees, refugees face many challenges - IFRC

At least two million Malians lived in Côte d'Ivoire, of whom 50,000 have gone to Mali as a result of the five-month-old Ivorian crisis, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). Some 15,000 Malians travelled in buses hired by their embassy in Abidjan, while others went back on their own. However, the displaced Malians face many challenges during and after the journey. In a brief report on Thursday in which it outlined some of the challenges they faced, the international humanitarian institution described a scene witnessed by its officials at the end of one such journey: "One recent afternoon, 764 exhausted returnees, mostly women and children, arrived in 10 overcrowded vehicles after a gruelling 11-day journey ... they spoke of harassment and extortion at checkpoints, of hunger and sickness and sleepless nights looking after fractious, crying children; of boiling daytime temperatures and of constant fear of attack by armed groups," IFRC said. "Returning to villages that their forefathers left generations ago, and to distant cousins whom they have never met, will no doubt make integration into the local community a long process for the returnees. But it will not be easy either for their hosts, many of whom are already feeling the financial strain of having extra, unplanned-for mouths to feed, perhaps for a very long time," it added. The number of Ivorian, Burkinabe and other refugees who had entered Mali since the start of Ivorian conflict in September was minimal, IFRC said, but their plight was no less acute than that of the returnees. Some of the returnees live in Faragouaran and Louloumi camps in the southwestern Sikasso region. "Although Faragouaran and Louloumi are home to a few hundred refugees at present, this could quickly change if the war in Côte d'Ivoire intensifies," IFRC said. "The UN and other agencies, including the Mali Red Cross, are already making contingency plans. A second site, close to Louloumi, capable of accommodating 20,000 people has been identified." IFRC's latest emergency updates are available at: www.ifrc.org