Thursday, April 14, 2011

Cote D'Ivoire

Our staff in Côte d'Ivoire are sharing developments with us as events unfold. On April 11th Ouattara delivered a speech on TV calling for peace and reconciliation and asked Gbogbo’s forces and militias to stop fighting and looting. The Police and Gendarmerie called on their teams to resume work, and Prime Minister Soro also called all youths to end the fighting. Ouattara mentioned that Gbagbo will be judged for the crimes that occurred under him, but he will be treated with dignity as former President and his rights and physical integrity will be respected.

Despite these developments, the delivery of humanitarian assistance remains difficult.  Our staff report that  carjacking, looting, targeted ethnic violence and robberies continue to be reported in Abidjan.  Critical needs remain unaddressed around water, sanitation and health.  CARE is planning to distribute food to about 50,000 people in Bouake, Korhogo, Man and to 10,000 host families.  In Korhogo, CARE provided well purification training to focal persons and distributed water purification kits to just under 1,000 people in Man city.


We are collecting funds to help those affected by the crisis - http://care.ca to donate! More information available at http://care.ca/main/index.php?en&C%C3%B4te_dIvoire