IOM has deployed staff in the western Ivorian town of
Duékoué to help register and assist up to 25,000
internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have sought refuge in and
around a Catholic mission and who are in dire need of food, water,
shelter, medical and sanitation assistance.

The registration, which is carried out in coordination with the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, World Food Programme and Caritas
aims to identify those most in need of immediate humanitarian
assistance, including vulnerable and traumatized women and children
who have escaped last week's killings in the Carrefour district of
Duékoué.

Distributions of food rations and non food assistance, including
medical supplies, malaria kits, shelter, cooking sets, jerrycans,
sleeping mats, soap and blankets are scheduled to begin later today
in and around the Catholic mission and in a nearby Protestant
church, which shelters up to 1,500 displaced persons.

In an effort to reduce overcrowding in the mission and church,
IOM is working with the local authorities and humanitarian partners
to identify new safe sites for the displaced. Relocation to those
sites would reduce the health risks linked to current overcrowded
and unsanitary conditions, which has lead to an outbreak of
diarrhoeal diseases and skin infections among the displaced.

IOM is teaming up with Caritas, local NGOs and community leaders
to raise awareness of public hygiene among the displaced.

The Organization has also learnt that some 400 people who had
fled Duékoué last week have found refugee in another
Catholic mission located in the town of Zouan Hounien, which is
located close to the Liberian border.

They were part of a much larger group of some 4,000 displaced
persons on their way to the nearby town of Guiglo, where displaced
persons continue to arrive to escape threats of violence and
retaliation.

Meanwhile, IOM has received a desperate request for assistance
from a group of some 3,000 Malian migrants, including many women
and children, who have been living for the past ten days in the
basement and the halls of the Malian Embassy in Abidjan.

Many have sustained bullet and machete wounds from attacks
carried out by armed youth militias loyal to the incumbent
president Gbagbo. Without running water for the past 72 hours, they
say they dare not walk to the nearby lagoon for fear of further
violence.

IOM has also received calls for help from a group of some 450
Mauritanians who have found refuge in their embassy and wish to be
repatriated.  IOM remains unable to evacuate them because of
on-going fighting in Abidjan.

"We urge warring parties in Cote d'Ivoire not to target
civilians and migrant workers and to ensure their protection and
safety," says IOM Director General William Lacy Swing. "We exhort
them to give humanitarians full access to the population and allow
the safe evacuation of all migrant workers who wish to return
home."

IOM has been asked to evacuate more than 50,000 stranded
migrants from Cote d'Ivoire to Mauritania, Guinea, Senegal, Burkina
Faso and Mali.

In January, IOM appealed for an initial USD 3.5 million to carry
out a range of operations including assisting the internally
displaced persons, third country nationals and stranded migrants in
Cote d'Ivoire.

To date, the Organization has received USD 1.06 million from the
US government and the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund. IOM's
funding needs will be revised as part of the forthcoming revised
appeal for Cote d'Ivoire.

For further information, please contact:

Jean-Philippe Chauzy

IOM Geneva

Tel: +41 22 717 93 61

       +41 79 285 43 66

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