Ivory Coast – The “Forgotten Emergency”
Oxfam (topnews.in)
Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam), an international organization founded in the 1940s to find lasting solutions against famine and injustice, warned on Monday that another “forgotten emergency” is about to happen in West Africa as thousands of people are fleeing their country to the neighboring Liberia, after the fight between the supporters of the two presidents, one of them self-appointed and the other elect after the presidential runoffs in November 2010 became more and more intense.
The representatives of Oxfam made this statement in the capital of Liberia, Monrovia, saying that the number of refugees coming from Ivory Coast increased over the past few years, being mainly massed at the border regions.
Though they are being sheltered by the Liberian villagers, who are most receptive, the refugees still lack health and shelter conditions.
Oxfam fears that as the world turns attention toward the wave of revolutions in the Arab world and North Africa, the situation in West Africa could develop into a “forgotten emergency.”
Ivorian Refugees (voanews.com)
According to the international organization, about 70,000 people fled the country for Liberia, and the number is about to grow as the situation continues to degenerate in Ivory Coast.
The scandal broke out as the incumbent president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to acknowledge his defeat to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, who was recognized by the international community as president-elect.
Gbagbo was asked to resign and go into exile, a proposition he refused on various occasions.
A few delegations were sent by the African Union and the Ecowas, the collective body of the West African countries, to convince him, but they came out empty-handed.
A military intervention was tabled by some leaders of Ecowas, but there were countries that opposed the idea, so that economic sanctions were thought to be productive, but they have not been so effective so far, since the president incumbent still has people to defend him, while the population gets more and more impoverished.
