The European Commission has approved US $205,000 in emergency humanitarian aid for the distribution of some 350 mt of food to Burkinabe migrants forced to leave Cote d’Ivoire in November-December 1999, the EC Humanitarian Office (ECHO) reported.
The decision was taken on 14 January, ECHO said in a news communique. “The emergency assistance granted by the European Commission via ECHO corresponds to the food needs of the expelled populations during the first two months of their return,” the news communique stated.
The relief operation in favour of the Burkinabes, implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP), began on 11 December.
The Burkinabe who, ECHO said, number about 20,000, had been farming - mainly cocoa - in southwest Cote d’Ivoire for years. Following a land dispute, locals chased them out of the area, destroying houses and other property, ECHO stated. Officially there was one death in each community.
The expelled migrants are mostly from Poni province in southwest Burkina Faso, and more than 60 percent are women and children, ECHO 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
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