25,000 Ivoirian Refugees in Liberia - Food and Water Scarce

Nine year-old Sanata was home alone when chaos erupted in her village on the western border of Ivory Cost and Liberia. Sanata’s parents were working in the fields and her brothers and sisters were out when the neighbours decided to run from the village and across the Nior river into Liberia – a long days walk under a baking sun.

Following the elections in Ivory Coast last November, many villages like Sanata’s experienced confusion, and fear that there would be violence when the two presidential candidates both claimed legitimate victory in early December.

Many Iviorians crossed into Liberia as early as 28 November – some seeing continued stalemate and growing aggression in the capital of Abidjan as the dangerous next step to another civil war.

To date UNHCR has registered Ivoirian 25,088 refugees in Liberia. A report from the Liberian-Ivoirian border For UNICEF (January 2011).