An estimated 450,000 people are thought to be displaced by the
growing unrest in Cote d'Ivoire.

Although continued unrest in Cote d'Ivoire's largest city
Abidjan and the targeting of aid workers and organizations has
meant it has become difficult to carry out assessments, between
200,000 to 300,000 people are thought to be forcibly displaced,
mainly in the Abobo district, according to UNHCR.

In the west of the country where IOM is now the only aid agency
operating in Douékoué and Guiglo and the link from
the field to the humanitarian community outside, another 70,000
people are internally displaced. However, with fighting between
rival forces at Toulepleu, this figure is likely to not only have
led to significantly more people being displaced but also caused
high levels of secondary displacement.

A spot assessment by IOM at the Catholic mission at the weekend
found only 3,159 people still there when previously there had been
about 10,000. Similarly, numbers of displaced at the Protestant
mission have dropped to just 276 people and at the Nazareth mission
in Guiglo to 184 people.

"This illustrates just how dynamic the population movement is in
this region and it is not going to change soon. We know of families
who had returned to their home villages not so long ago but now,
they are back again at the Catholic Mission in
Douékoué because of the renewed insecurity in the
area and the fighting in Toulepleu," says IOM's Chief of Mission in
Cote d'Ivoire, Jacques Seurt.

Among those escaping the fighting and seeking shelter at the
Catholic mission is a group of nuns with 35 orphans.

The same fighting has also led to about 8,000 people crossing
the border into Liberia in recent days, bringing the number of
Ivorian refugees there to nearly 80,000. This is in addition to as
yet an unknown number of third country nationals and Liberian
returnees who have also crossed the Ivorian-Liberian border.

With another 20,000 people including Ivorians, third country
nationals and returnees having fled to Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali
and Niger, the displacement crisis in the region has now reached
alarming proportions.

The cutting of water and electricity supplies in the north and
west of the country has seriously affected people's lives,
especially of those people displaced and living in camps.

IOM staff in Guiglo and Duékoué report conditions
are rapidly deteriorating and are struggling to find alternative
solutions to deal with the shortages in an increasingly volatile
and difficult environment.

"There are reports that armed groups in the region are
terrorizing the population in the area south of the Toulepleu-
Bloléquin axis, forcing Burkinabés and other migrant
communities as well as Ivorians to seek refuge in the forests at
Scio, north of Toulepleu. What is clear is that there are several
reasons why people are fleeing their homes in this part of the
country and the information we have is piecemeal," adds Seurt.
"Confusion and anarchy are gaining the upper hand in this area
where now humanitarian actors no longer have access. The
international community needs to not only watch this space but also
to respond to aid agencies' calls for greater resources to help
those innocently caught in between the conflict."

For further information, please contact:

Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: +41 22 717 9486

       +41 79 217 3374

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int