ABIDJAN, Jan 18 (AFP) - A UN envoy on a visit to west Africa said Saturday
she was shocked by the living conditions facing people who were forced from
their slum homes when war broke out in Ivory Coast four months ago.
"I had heard about the situation these people faced but to see how they
really live was schocking," Carolyn McAskie told AFP after meeting with the
slum dwellers, dubbed "evictees," in the Allakro neighbourhood of Abidjan.
McAskie, who arrived in Ivory Coast on Thursday for the start of a
three-week visit to the region, visited a group of slum dwellers, most of
them west African migrant workers, in the economic hub of the west African
country.
The people's homes had been razed on the orders of President Laurent
Gbagbo days after rebels rose up against his government on September 19,
sparking the conflict that has ground on for four months.
The government announced on October 4 that it would destroy all
shantytowns in the city within a month, claiming that foreign supporters of
the rebels were living there.
Allakro was completely destroyed in the post-rebellion raids.
McAskie urged Gbagbo's government "to treat the people who were chased
from their homes in a humane manner and allow them to keep their personal
belongings."
She said the UN would give "humanitarian aid to displaced persons who
are in a difficult situation."
The aid agency "Save the Children" has said that 16 out of Abidjan's 30
neighbourhoods have been razed since October. Some 25,000 people have been
affected by the raids, and 3,000 left homeless.
During her three-week visit to the region McAskie will meet with aid
workers, political leaders, civilians and displaced people around Ivory
Coast,including in regions to the north and west under rebel control.
"I came to be able to tell the story of people who are suffering" to the
international community and "more specifically to the secretary general and
the United Nations Security Council," she said upon arrival Thursday.
Starting next week, McAskie will visit Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and
Liberia, to assess the impact of the four-month war.
The head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), Besida Tonwe, has estimated that between 600,000 and a million
people have been displaced by the Ivory Coast war.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan named McAskie, a Canadian who is UN
deputy emergency relief coordinator, as special envoy to Ivory Coast last
month because of the mounting humanitarian crisis.
Her visit coincides with peace talks being held near the French capital,
Paris, where Ivorian rebels, government and political groups have since
Wednesday been trying to hammer out their differences.
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