Côte d'Ivoire: Humanitarian agencies work to meet food and health needs
New York - The humanitarian situation
in Cote d'Ivoire remains worrisome, almost one year after an attempted
coup d'etat that split the country in two, on 19 September 2002. Public
services are still not available in the north and in the Government-controlled
west, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without access to basic health
care, and threatening to deprive tens of thousands of children of a second
consecutive year of formal education. UN agencies and their non-governmental
organization (NGO) partners are also combating insecurity, and food needs
created by the residual effects of the conflict.
In northern, central and western areas
of the country, a lack of medicines and primary health care is reported
to be the biggest stumbling block in providing for the needs of the internally
displaced and other affected populations. Earlier this year, UNICEF
supplied its operational partners with medicines to cover the basic needs
of 1.2 million people for three months. UNICEF and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) continue to fight the spread of epidemics by supporting
vaccination and immunization programmes countrywide, and the UN Population
Fund (UNFPA) is working with the Government and NGO partners to reduce
infant and maternal mortality, and stem the spread of sexually transmitted
infections, and HIV/AIDS.
In its continuing response to the educational and recreational needs of over one hundred thousand children directly affected by the conflict in Côte d'Ivoire, UNICEF is running four "child friendly" centres in the two cities of Abidjan and Yamoussoukro, where large numbers of internally displaced families have converged. The agency has also recently supplied educational and recreational kits to humanitarian organisations in northern, central and western towns. UNICEF has also signed a Master Plan of Operations with the Côte d'Ivoire government for a new program of co-operation covering 2003 to 2007, including programmes in support of education, protection of children and women, and health care initiatives.
Ivorians' ability to produce their own food has been hampered by the disruption of agricultural production during the conflict. As a result, many farmers in the west and north face difficulties, as they are without food, seeds or agricultural implements to restart cultivation. In the north, cotton farmers are facing severe food shortages as they were unable to sell their crop during the conflict. In response, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is distributing seeds and tools in the west and southwest to help restart agricultural activities.
Since the crisis erupted, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been providing food under programmes across the country tailored to help the most vulnerable groups: children, refugees, IDPs, nationals of West African countries, pregnant and breast feeding mothers, the mentally handicapped and families hosting IDPs. WFP, in cooperation with the Ivorian Government and UNICEF, is also using feeding programmes in schools and institutions in northern, western and central areas to gain direct access to vulnerable children, to encourage regular school attendance and to avoid the recruitment of children by armed elements.
For further information on the humanitarian situation in Côte d'Ivoire, contact Jeff Brez, Information Officer, UN OCHA: jeff@ocha.ci / +225-2240-5174