Growing concern over situation along border

Humanitarian agencies have expressed concern about thousands of people along Cote d'Ivoire's border with Liberia, following an outbreak of fighting in the western Ivorian towns of Man and Danane. Sources said a group calling itself the Ivoirian Populaire Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) took over Danane on Thursday while Man was invaded by the Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ). Both groups are said to include former supporters of late de facto president General Robert Guei, who was killed during a 19 September mutiny that marked the start of an insurgency by another group, the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire. Man and Danane lie in the Zone d'Accueil des Refugies (ZAR or Refugee Zone), a fringe of territory near the western border where the bulk of the Liberian refugees in Cote d'Ivoire live. UNHCR has expressed concern about the security of civilians there, including the refugees. "There is huge concern about the safety and wellbeing of the 30,000 refugees in Danane, and the overall situation of the 70,000 in the ZAR," Panos Moumtzis, acting head of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Abidjan told IRIN on Friday. Allegations that there were English-speaking men among the rebels had caused panic among the refugees, he said. "Eighty percent of the Liberian refugees are women and children," Moumtzis said. "We feel their safety must be ensured. We hope all sides will respect the basic humanitarian principles" relating to civilians' rights in conflicts. In Liberia, an inter-agency mission left the capital, Monrovia, for the eastern border to assess the situation there, Mukhtar Farah, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Liberia told IRIN on Friday. The mission, which comprised OCHA, UNHCR, World Food Programme and the German aid agency, GTZ, was expected to be in the area until Tuesday. The mission was despatched to Grand-Gedeh and Nimba counties after reports that Liberians as well as Ivorians had been fleeing to the area. An Abidjan a resident whose family lives in Toulepleu, an area about 100 km from Danane, said he had been informed by his relatives that people there had started crossing the border river into eastern Liberia. Meanwhile, some 243 Ivorians who fled their country since 19 September are currently being taken care of by the Bole district assembly in northern Ghana. Ivorian Ambassador to Ghana Anon Tonoe visited the asylum seekers on Wednesday to see how the Ivorian embassy could assist them. Bole District Mayor Sam Akati Mahama said the assembly had so far spent more than 30 million cedis (US $3,716) on food, fuel for official vehicles and security for the refugees. The National Disaster Management Organisation had also provided tents, mattresses.