ABIDJAN — At least 14,000 people have fled the violence and political chaos in Ivory Coast, some walking for up to four days with little food to reach neighbouring Liberia, the United Nations’ refugee agency said. At least one child drowned while trying to cross a river.
The UN has said at least 173 people have died in violence over the disputed presidential run-off election held nearly one month ago. The toll is believed to be much higher, though, as the UN mission has been blocked from investigating other reports including an allegation of a mass grave.
“Food supplies are running short despite efforts by the government and humanitarian agencies to bring in more assistance,” the UN refugee agency said in a statement late Saturday. “Our staff report that host community houses are full and congested. In the area of Butuo, for example, there are homes where seven to 20 family members share a single room, while others sleep in corridors or on verandas.”
West African leaders have threatened a military intervention if the man who the UN says lost the election in Ivory Coast does not step down. James Gbeho, president of the regional bloc ECOWAS, said the group was making an “ultimate gesture” to Laurent Gbagbo to urge him to make a peaceful exit.
Gbagbo has shown few signs that he plans to go, and his security forces have been accused of being behind hundreds of arrests, and dozens of cases of disappearance and torture in recent weeks. A Gbagbo adviser has said he does not believe their supporters are behind the attacks.
Gbeho said the bloc would send in a high-level delegation to meet with Gbagbo, but did not give details on when the delegation would go to Ivory Coast. ECOWAS also did not state a deadline for Gbagbo to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, whose victory has been acknowledged by the international community.
The threat of military intervention may add enough pressure to bring about a swifter resolution, said African security analyst Peter Pham. However, he questioned whether a force could be brought together quickly enough to have an impact.
“Nigeria — the only real military power in the AU — is unlikely to have the stomach for a drawn-out military escapade on the eve of their own presidential election,” said Pham, who is the senior vice-president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York. Nigerian elections are expected in April.
Diplomatic pressure and sanctions have left Gbagbo increasingly isolated, though he has been able to maintain his rule for nearly a month since the disputed vote because of the loyalty of security forces and the country’s military.
Even that, though, may disappear if he runs out of money to pay them. Gbagbo’s access to the state funds used to pay soldiers and civil servants has been cut off and only Ouattara’s representatives now have access to the state coffers.
Senior diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, say that Gbagbo only has enough reserves to run the country for three months.
Gbagbo’s spokesman Ahoua Don Mello on Saturday denounced the decision by West Africa’s economic and monetary union to give Ouattara’s government signing privileges on state accounts. He called the move “illegal and manifestly beyond their competence.”
The meeting of regional finance ministers that issued the freeze “overstepped its stated prerogatives by interfering in the internal affairs of a member state of the union,” Mello said.
Gbagbo’s government has denied rumours that state salaries wouldn’t be paid, and in spite of the financial freeze, civil servants received their paycheques the day before Christmas Eve.
While Ouattara now has access to government funds, he is struggling to assert his legitimacy despite widespread international support. Troops loyal to his political rival continue to encircle the hotel where he has taken refuge under the protection of some 800 UN peacekeepers since the election.
“After these long years of crisis, the Ivorian people deserved to rejoice in our democratic advancement,” Ouattara said in a Christmas Eve address. “But former president Laurent Gbagbo has decided to turn a new page of violence and uncertainty, aggravating every day a little more the suffering of Ivorians.”
In recent days, the UN has expressed alarm about the actions of men who are believed to be Gbagbo loyalists. The world body reported Thursday that heavily armed forces allied with Gbagbo, who were joined by masked men with rocket launchers, were preventing people from getting to the village of N’Dotre, where the global body said “allegations point to the existence of a mass grave.”
Ivory Coast was once an economic hub because of its role as the world’s top cocoa producer.
A 2002-2003 civil war split the country into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south. While the country officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara draws his support from the northern half of the country, where he was born, while Gbagbo’s power base is in the south.