COTE D'IVOIRE (10 August)
Rainfall has been generally below average since May, with possible effects on maize development in the south and millet and sorghum crops in the north. Agricultural production is not expected to reach its pre-crisis level this year because of the mass population displacements and likely seeds shortages resulting from the civil war.
Although the overall security situation shows improvement, the food situation in the country remains critical, mainly in the west and rebel-controlled north. There are grave concerns about the humanitarian situation in the west, where hundreds of people have been emerging from the bush since French and West African peacekeeping troops were sent into the area in late May. Most of the children and women showed signs of malnutrition. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), several thousand immigrant farmers and agricultural labourers from Burkina Faso and other West African countries are still being forced to leave their host communities in the West. WFP is facing a gap in donor funding for food supplies in the region, and there is no functioning health-care system. Humanitarian assistance falls short of current needs, and an escalation in malnutrition, morbidity and mortality rates is feared. The humanitarian situation has been aggravated by the dire situation in Liberia that prompted a new influx of over 30 000 refugees. In the rebel-controlled north, access to food is very difficult for the cotton farmers, who were unable to sell their crop because of the conflict.
More than 1 million people have been displaced by armed 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 EMOP for a period of 8 months (May–December 2003) to assist 588 600 people in Côte d’Ivoire as well as 275 000 people who are in transit or returning to neighbouring countries (Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali).