UN seeks US $85 million for war victims

The United Nations launched an appeal on Tuesday for US$85.8m of emergency aid for about 2.8 million people in West Africa who have become victims of the civil war in Cote d’Ivoire. The UN is seeking donor funds to help 750,00 internally displaced people within Cote d’Ivoire and an estimated 400,000 people who have been forced to flee to five neighbouring countries: Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Liberia and Ghana. The appeal to finance relief programmes in the region up to the end of 2003, also aims to benefit people in rebel-held areas in the north and west of Cote d’Ivoire who have stayed at home but have suffered insecurity and have been deprived of basic services such as health and education since the fighting began in September last year. Launching the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Cote d’Ivoire,Carolyn McAskie, the UN Humanitarian Envoy for the Crisis in Cote d’Ivoire, stressed the regional nature of the problem and the urgent need to channel humanitarian aid into the war-affected areas of thecountry to shore up its fragile peace process. McAskie said: “I am absolutely convinced that we must tackle the humanitarian situation in order to consolidate the peace process and rebuild confidence in the country.” “It is not just Cote d’Ivoire in crisis. It is the neighbouring countries too,” she added. “We must look and see if there are some regional elements we should take into account.” UN officials are particularly concerned about the deteriorating situation in neighbouring Liberia, where the government of President Charles Taylor is losing ground to two rebel movements who are closing in on the capital Monrovia. Marc Destanne de Bernis, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Liberia, said more than 70 percent of the country had become inaccessible to aid workers because of the fighting. He remarked: “If the situation in Cote d’Ivoire is very serious, the situation in Liberia is catastrophic.” The UN is also worried about the potentially destabilising impact on Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea of an estimated 400,000 Ivorian refugees and foreign residents of Cote d’Ivoire who have fled there to escape the fighting. Most have fled to Burkina Faso, which has seen more than 260,000 Burkinabe migrants and their families return home from Cote d'Ivoire since the fighting began seven months ago. In addition, 48,000 Malians are officially registered as having returned from Cote d’Ivoire, although the government in Bamako estimates that up to 200,000 people have in reality fled across the border. There are also fears that the unrest in Cote d’Ivoire could spill over into its eastern neighbour, Ghana. The Ivorian government and three rebel movements signed a peace accord in France in January and formed a government of national reconciliation earlier this month. But there have been delays in implementing the peace process. And despite the presence of French and West African peace-keeping forces, fighting continues between government forces and the two smaller rebel movements in the west of the country near the Liberian border. McAskie admitted that it was still difficult for relief organisations to operate in these areas, but she said that in some parts of the west conditions were improving. Responding to the UN appeal on behalf of the European Union, Italy’s ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire, Paolo Sannella, said donors would need to be assured that relief workers would be guaranteed security and freedom of movement to deliver aid effectively. He also called for stronger regional coordination between the different players in the humanitarian assistance programme. Commenting on his remarks, a European diplomatic source said later that the UN relief effort so far had lacked adequate cohesion. This was the UN’s third appeal to donors for humanitarian assistance to Cote d’Ivoire. It had earlier sought a total of $22m, of which only $9m had been provided, mainly in the form of food aid. McAskie noted that the UN World Food Programme had already received informal pledges for two-thirds of the food aid it was seeking in the latest appeal. However, the UN action programme also includes measures to protect, house, transport and provide medical assistance for refugees forced to flee abroad, foreign nationals living in Cote d’Ivoire who have been forced to abandon their homes and Ivorians who have been displaced within their own country.