With more than 129,500 people now displaced within and across the
borders of Cote d'Ivoire and the situation worsening on a daily
basis, IOM is calling on the international community not to forget
Africa's other displacement crisis.

Renewed fighting in western Cote d'Ivoire and in Abidjan itself
has led to an estimated 50,000 people now displaced in Danane,
Duekoue and Man. At least 20,000 estimated people have been
forcibly displaced in Abidjan following clashes late last week.
IOM, UNHCR and other partners are trying to further assess levels
of displacement in the city but security conditions and the
targeting of humanitarian workers are making the work extremely
difficult.

IOM staff on the ground in the west of the country who are
registering and assisting the internally displaced (IDPs) in this
area along with several partners, say the displaced are
increasingly spreading out over a larger area in order to avoid
further targeting. This is making it harder to access and assist
them as the situation in the region continues to deteriorate.

However, more people are now crossing daily into Liberia from
the region. With more than 62,000 Ivorian refugees, Liberian
returnees and third country nationals from Cote d'Ivoire now
believed to be in Liberia, IOM is strengthening its operational
capacity on the ground there.

An IOM team has been deployed to Saclepea and Harper in northern
and southern Liberia to identify Liberian returnees and third
country nationals who would have crossed from Cote d'Ivoire. With
Ivorian refugees, Liberian returnees and third country nationals
believed to be spread across 70 villages along the border in Nimba
county alone, IOM staff will go village by village to check if
there are Liberian returnees and third country nationals being
hosted there and what help they need.

However, the tracking of and assistance to migrants is a race
against time as the rainy season is due to start any time soon in
the region.

"IOM and humanitarian partners are all working with minimal
funding to respond to this humanitarian crisis. Conditions are
deteriorating as the conflict escalates. We need the international
community not to forget what is happening here and help us to help
those who are frightened and in need," says Eugenio Ambrosi, IOM's
Special Envoy for the Cote d'Ivoire crisis.

Elsewhere, IOM  has established a presence in Takoradi
close to the border between Ghana and Cote d' Ivoire  to
monitor the situation at the border and to provide immediate
assistance to migrants fleeing from the West African country. IOM
staff at the border say that the number of people crossing into
Ghana has dropped recently due to increased roadblocks and a high
incidence of robbery within Cote d'Ivoire. Those arriving have
nothing left and are in urgent need of both humanitarian assistance
and transport to a reception centre near Takoradi.

As well as nearly 6,200 Ghanaian migrants having returned home,
the country has 106 Ivorian refugees while several hundred third
country nationals have transited through Ghana on their way home.
IOM has assisted a small group of nearly 20 Guineans to return
home.

In Mali, nearly 7,750 people have crossed the border since the
crisis began. Although the majority of them – 4,755 –
are Malian returnees, the country is hosting 1,560 Ivorian refugees
and 1,435 migrants of other nationalities.

IOM staff at the Malian-Ivorian border say those crossing are
mainly from the north of the country and cite a number of reasons
for leaving. This includes a lack of basic necessities, health
facilities, schools closing, harassment and hardship. The returnees
say more people are planning on leaving Cote d'Ivoire but are
waiting to see how things develop whilst others want to leave but
don't have the means to do so.

Some refugees and migrants have reached Bamako, the capital,
where a pastor of a local church has contacted IOM to report that
several migrants and Ivorian nationals have arrived there seeking
refuge with more due to arrive soon.

Guinea has also seen more than 2,500 returnees and Ivorian
refugees cross its border in the past weeks while Burkina Faso to
the north has seen 3,000 people arrive.

For further information, please contact:

Jacques Seurt in Cote d'Ivoire

Tel: +22 50 40 70 203

David John in Liberia

Tel: +231 88 0418 998

Bill Lorenz in Ghana

Tel: + 233 26300 6891

or

Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9486

       + 41 70 217 3374

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