Food and health are still great needs

One year after Cote d'Ivoire erupted in a political crisis, food and health remain the greatest needs for thousands of war-affected civilians throughout the country, humanitarian agencies in the country said on Monday. Relief agencies say the crisis, which started with a failed coup-attempt on 19 September 2002 and displaced one million people including those from several West African countries, has created a "humanitarian situation in Cote d'Ivoire [which] remains worrisome." "Public services are still not available in the north and in the government-controlled west, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without access to basic health care," the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. "[The situation is] threatening to deprive tens of thousands of children of a second consecutive year of formal education," OCHA added. "In northern, central and western areas of the country, lack of medicines and primary health care is the biggest stumbling block in providing the needs of the internally displaced and other affected populations," the agency said in a statement. The statement however said that despite the persistent insecurity in some parts of the country, UN humanitarian agencies managed to implement various programmes. UNICEF provided educational and recreational needs to thousands of war-displaced children and supplied its implementing partners with medicine to cover the needs of 1.2 million people, and the World Health Organization conducted immunization and vaccination campaigns couuntrywide. The UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) collaborated with government and non-governmental organisations to implement HIV/AIDS prevention activities and programmes to stem maternal and infant mortality, OCHA said on behalf of UN agencies in Cote d'Ivoire. While the war hampered the country's ability to produce food as farm lands turned to battlefields, the Food and Agriculture Organisation had stepped in to distribute seeds and tools to farmers in west and southwestern Cote d'Ivoire. The World Food Programme, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and numerous national and international NGOs, had deployed throughout the country to aid civilians in the once peaceful West African country, OCHA added. Continuing conflict led to the signing of a peace agreement in January between warring factions and the adoption of UN Resolution 1448, under which the UN has deployed a mission, MINUCI, to ensure the implementation of the agreement.