CÔTE D'IVOIRE (29 May)
Following the start of rains in late February, abundant precipitation covered the entire country during April. However, rains decreased and remained generally below average in May, which may have affected maize development in the south and the planting and emergence of millet and sorghum crops in the north. Agricultural production is not expected to reach its pre-crisis level this year due to mass population displacement and likely seeds shortages, following the civil war.
Although the overall security situation has started to improve the food situation in the country remains critical, mainly in the rebel-controlled north and west. In the north, access to food is very difficult for cotton farmers who were unable to sell their crop because of the conflict. In the west, which has in the past few months suffered continuing attacks against civilians and further population displacement and where renewed fighting in Liberia has led to a new influx of displaced persons, farm families have limited access to their fields because of insecurity and few market outlets for their cash crops.
More than 1 million people have been displaced by the conflict. At least 800 000 people fled south from the north and centre and about 300 000 were displaced in the west around the city of Man. Another 200 000, mostly migrant workers from neighbouring Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia and Mali left the country. WFP has launched a Regional Emergency Operation to assist 588 600 people in Côte d’Ivoire and 275 000 people in transit/returnees to neighbouring countries (Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali) for a period of 8 months (May-December 2003). Safe access to IDPs in Côte d’Ivoire, particularly in the west, remains a major problem for humanitarian agencies.