Côte d'Ivoire: Number of IDPs continues to rise

Heavy fighting between supporters of Laurent Gbagbo and those of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan has caused a steep rise in the estimated number of people internally displaced in Côte d'Ivoire. The UNHCR estimated on 11 March that approximately 370,000 people have been internally displaced by fighting in Abidjan and the West.

In Abidjan, the agency estimated on 4 March that 200,000 people had been displaced. But by 15 March, this estimate had risen to 300,000. Most IDPs had been living in Abobo district, where the fighting was most intense. The Deux Plauteaux, Cocody, Le Plateau and Koumassi districts had also been the scenes of violence.

Assessments have been difficult to carry out due to continued fighting and the targeting of aid workers and organisations. Thousands of people across Abidjan have been hosted in community centres where conditions are inadequate and where protection needs have not been properly assessed. According to UNHCR, approximately three in four IDPs have sought refuge with friends and family; the rest have found shelter in churches and other communal places. ICRC has provided water, shelters and hygiene requisites to three reception centres hosting between 500 and 600 people displaced in Abidjan. On 15 March, UNHCR and its partners identified approximately 18,000 IDPs in groups spread across 24 sites, and 19,000 others amid clusters of host families.

UNHCR monitoring teams have also passed on reports of people being prevented from leaving areas of fighting, or being forced to give up cash or other possessions in order to be allowed to leave. On 12 March, UNHCR's local partners began aid distribution in Abidjan; as of 15 March, they had managed to reach some 10,000 IDPs.

The west of the country has also been the scene of fighting and insecurity, which has made humanitarian access very difficult and left IDPs with little or no assistance. On 8 March, UNHCR and IOM estimated that 70,000 people had been displaced in the west. Fighting had caused many people to be displaced again from their first places of refuge: most people who had sought shelter at the catholic mission of Douéké had fled again by 8 March, as had most of those in Guiglo. Due to the insecurity in the area, the UNHCR decided to stop building a camp for IDPs in Douéké. Meanwhile, the loss of water and electricity supplies in the north and west of the country has severely affected living conditions, especially of those people displaced and living in camps.