© UNHCR/H.Caux

Following last November's contested presidential election, recent fighting between rival forces in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, has displaced between 200,000 and 300,000 people. The deteriorating security situation in Abidjan has led to the creation of several roadblocks by armed groups, while fighting has spread to the business district of Plateau. Abobo, which is normally home to around 1.5 million people, also saw conflict erupt in the last week of February and has seen its communications disrupted via the destruction of SMS and television transmitters.

Jacques Franquin, UNHCR’s representative in Ivory Coast, has stated that this hostile environment makes it "extremely problematic for humanitarian agencies to be operational and reach the displaced". Indeed, it is becoming increasingly difficult for humanitarian organizations to reach people who have fled the northern suburb of Abobo for safer areas of Abidjan as well as the needy in western Ivory Coast, where there are a further 70,000 internally displaced people.

A further reason for this difficulty comes from the humanitarian space in which people can find shelter being squeezed hard in Abidjan and elsewhere in Ivory Coast. Potentially a quarter of the displaced are staying in temporary locations around the city, including in churches and other communal places. UNHCR is especially concerned about a group of 60 families trapped inside a church in Abobo and without proper food, water or sanitation and have appealed to combatants for these people to be let out.

In neighbouring Liberia, UNHCR and its partners are struggling to help more than 70,000 Ivorian refugees who have crossed the border amid the mounting tension. In eastern Liberia, UNHCR has registered 77,000 refugees since the elections in November, of whom around half have arrived since February 24 after fresh fighting flared in western Ivory Coast. Government sources and UNHCR partners say another 7,000 people have crossed the border but not yet registered.

This sudden influx is placing enormous strains on local communities and the ability of aid organizations to help. In the town of Buutuo, in eastern Liberia's Nimba County, the water and sanitation situation has become critical, with reported cases of diarrhea, malaria, and food shortages. As well as providing direct support to refugees and communities, UNHCR and its partners have been working to rehabilitate bridges and roads to improve access and we are rushing to build a second camp as the facility at Bahn starts to fill up.