I Coast refugees get food
2004-11-21 21:26
Butuo - UN helicopters escorted by UN peacekeepers flew the first food aid on Sunday to this Liberian border town overwhelmed by thousands of refugees fleeing turmoil in neighbouring Ivory Coast.
Children swarmed aboard the helicopters, setting down in a soccer field, before the blades even stopped turning, desperate to get at the grain, oil and beans inside.
Butuo, just 4km from the border, has received the largest share of what local UN officials say are 19 000 refugees crossing from Ivory Coast.
The influx began on November 5, a day after Ivory Coast government attacks reignited a 2-year-old civil war in Ivory Coast.
As the refugee crossings into Liberia continued on Sunday, local people were exhausting their own food stocks to feed the hungry, exhausted newcomers, said Albert Farnga, a local official.
Villagers have been reduced to stripping rice out of the fields before it was ready for harvest, "to save our brothers and sisters", Farnga said.
Ivory Coast's crisis started when warplanes of that government opened bombing raids on the rebel-held north, ending a more than year-old cease-fire in the country's civil war.
One air strike hit a French peacekeeping post, killing nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker.
Attacks against foreigners
France destroyed Ivory Coast's air force on the tarmac in immediate retaliation, sparking violent attacks by Ivory Coast loyalists against foreigners and those of other ethnic groups.
Refugees in recent days say they fled across the river border when gunfire sounded near their towns, or when government troops tried to force civilian men into their ranks.
Bangladeshi UN troops flew in with at least one of about four helicopters full of food on Sunday.
Fifty tons of emergency supplies were expected to be landed by Monday.
UN officials would verify each potential recipient's refugee status before starting to hand out food, said Luca Curci, a UN worker helping oversee the airlift.
- AP