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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has given cleaning materials, soap and blankets to 1,400 people of Malian origin displaced by ethnic violence from the area around Lake Kossou, in central Côte d'Ivoire.
The displaced are now in five camps in the city of Bouaké, ICRC said on Thursday in the latest issue of its weekly bulletin, ICRC News 37. The emergency supplies were distributed following a needs assessment that the ICRC carried out from 12 to 15 September in cooperation with the Ivorian Red Cross.
The ethnic violence flared up in August between indigenes and people of Malian origin, who have lived as fishermen on the shores of Lake Kossou for over a generation. ICRC said thousands of people of Malian origin were forced to seek refuge in several nearby cities. Most were accommodated by relatives or friends, but those living in the camps in Bouaké "are particularly vulnerable and they are living in very bad sanitary conditions", ICRC delegate Claude Champagne said.
A number of the displaced have opted to return to Mali, while others hope they will be able to resume their activities in Côte d'Ivoire, ICRC said.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
