Thousands of immigrants still forced out of villages in west - OCHA

Several thousand immigrant farmers and agricultural labourers from Burkina Faso and other West African countries are still being forced to leave villages in the troubled west of Cote d'Ivoire as a result of continuing tension with their host communities, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday. OCHA said a recent visit to the area by the representatives of several UN relief agencies revealed that expulsions were continuing in villages around the government-controlled towns of Toulepleu and Zouan Hounien on the Liberian border and Guiglo and Duekoue further east. "There are now 6,000 deplaced people in the town of Guiglo and several hundred new arrivals turn up there every day," OCHA said in a statement. OCHA said the immigrants were generally given an ultimatum to leave their villages by the local chiefs. Many were attacked and threatened by groups of unidentified youths on their way out. The wave of expulsions had "assumed the proportions of a general exodus," it added. An IRIN correspondent who visited the troubled region at the end of July said Ivorian villagers suspected the Burkinabe and other immigrants of helping rebel fighters, who earlier this year staged frequent raids into the area from behind the nearby frontline. The rebels and poorly disciplined militiamen fighting in support of the government army have both been accused of massacring villagers in the "Wild West." The dispatch of 1,000 French peacekeeping troops to the area in May put an end to such atrocities, but outside the main towns and away from the main roads security remains poor. On behalf of the humanitarian community, OCHA appealed for the expulsions to cease. It warned that they could revive ethnic and communal tensions in the volatile area. The UN agency, which has specially responsibility for internally displaced people, also reminded the government of its duty to protect both Ivorian citizens and people from other West African countries living in Cote d'Ivoire. OCHA said the expulsions were hampering efforts to bring humanitarian assistance to the entire population of the region, where food is short because agriculture has been badly disrupted by the year-old civil war. "This phenomenon of explusions is aggravating the already critical humanitarian situation in the west," it said. The 6,000 displaced people in Guiglo represent only part of those expelled from their homes in the region. Displaced people have also gathered in smaller numbers in other towns and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has organised the repatriation of more than 6,000 immigrants living in the Guiglo area since the beginning of June. OCHA said the UN-led mission which visited the west between August 20 and 25 included representatives of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), OIM and SAARA, an Ivorian government responsible for refugee and displaced populations.