An IOM convoy of nine buses carrying a total of 639 Malian and
Mauritanian migrants has reached the northern town of
Bouaké, after leaving the economic capital Abidjan on
Saturday, 16 April.

This is the first evacuation carried out by IOM since the end of
March when intense fighting in Abidjan brought all operations to a
halt.

IOM staff say the resumption comes after a period of relative
calm and improved security in Abidjan, which continues to
experience acute fuel shortages and where many shops in the
business district of Plateau remain closed.

Prior to the stoppage, IOM had provided repatriation assistance
to more than a thousand Mauritanian migrants from Cote d'Ivoire to
their homes, and was in the process of evacuating an additional 400
Malians.

However, street fighting in the vicinity of the Mauritanian and
Malian embassies in the districts of Cocody and Deux Plateaux,
where hundreds of migrants had taken refuge, meant that the
departure of the convoy had to be cancelled.

On the 14th April, after a lull in fighting in Abidjan, an IOM
team went to the embassies where they found 357 Malians and 282
Mauritanians awaiting evacuation. Among them are 24 women and 36
children.

The team described the condition of the migrants as deeply
worrying, having endured two weeks in a cramped basement area
without fresh air or adequate food and water.

Four of the migrants had sustained bullet injuries and were
taken to a French hospital in Abidjan for treatment.

The four buses carrying the Mauritanians left Bouaké
yesterday for the two-day trip to the Malian capital, Bamako, where
an IOM team will organize their onward journey to the southern
Mauritanian towns of Al Oyun and Neema.

The convoy of five buses carrying Malian migrants is expected to
leave Bouaké later  today and will make a stop at the
border town of Zegoua in Mali, where an IOM team and Malian
authorities will accompany the convoy to the capital, Bamako.

In January, four countries - Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, and
Liberia - formally requested IOM to assist their nationals to
return to their respective countries.

IOM is also working with national disaster agencies in all
neighbouring countries including Guinea and Ghana to assist in the
reception and reintegration of returning nationals from Ivory
Coast.

Before the crisis in Ivory Coast, an estimated 40,000
Mauritanians were living and working in the country.  The
Malian ambassador to Abidjan also reported to IOM that about 20,000
Malian nationals required evacuation assistance. IOM estimates that
at least 100,000 stranded migrants in Ivory Coast will need
assistance.

Meanwhile, 840 migrants and Ivorian nationals seeking refuge in
Liberia have arrived at the border town of Harper in Liberia's
Maryland region in the last two weeks. The IOM team on the ground,
which took part in their screening and registration, say there is
an immediate and urgent need at Harper town for water, food,
medicine and other life saving assistance.

The IOM team has received and repatriated 74 Guinean nationals
to Conakry. Assistance was also provided by IOM for 11 Ghanaians
who travelled to the Liberian capital, Monrovia, where IOM will
assist them to return to their country.

IOM has appealed for US$ 41.6 million to carry out a range of
operations including assisting IDPs, third country nationals and
stranded migrants in Cote d'Ivoire.

To date, the Organization has received US$ 1.8 million from the
US Government's bureau of Population Refugee and Migration (PRM),
the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund and from the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

For more information please contact:

Jean-Philippe Chauzy

Tel: +41.79 285 43 66

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

or

Jumbe Omari Jumbe

Tel: +41 79 812 77 34

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