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afrol News, 4 February - While Western citizens mostly have left Côte d'Ivoire, refugees and immigrants from African neighbour countries are still being attacked by the local population and hindered from leaving the country. In Abidjan, where the protests against France, Frenchmen and the Paris peace accord have been most forceful, also the attacks against African foreigners are continuing. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) today reports that the shanty towns that are mostly inhabited by refugees and regional immigrants are being attacked by rioting locals. - We have received reports of armed men bursting into at least two poor districts at night, threatening residents and setting houses on fire, said UNCHR spokeswoman Delphine Marie today. Abidjan has often been called the capital of all Western Africa, and the vibrant city has attracted the working force it needed from all over the region. During the last decade, also refugees from war-ravaged neighbour countries - in particular Liberia - have found their way to the Ivorian economic capital. Xenophobia only started to spread in Côte d'Ivoire during the polarising 2001 elections, as the predominantly Christian south of the country stood against the Muslim-dominated north. People from the north were infiltrated by foreigner, one was told, and during the civil war that broke out in September last year, all foreigners have been branded enemies. Soon after the mutiny, which developed into a civil war, erupted, police started clearing and burning parts of the shanty towns where refugees and African immigrants lived. After the controversial Paris peace accord, the destructive mission has been taken over by furious Abidjan residents, attacking the remaining foreigners. Thousands of West Africans are trying to return to their country of origin; even to Liberia, where there also is a civil war going on and dictator President Charles Taylor governs ruthlessly. But even a return to Liberia is not always possible. On the border between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia, eager locals are preventing Liberian refugees to return home. Those assumingly guilty of the civil war in Côte d'Ivoire are to stay and suffer together with us, they argue. Ms Marie from UNHCR however says that the refugee agency increasingly is able to escort Liberians back to their homeland after negotiating with local Ivorian residents. Some 1500 Liberians have already been repatriated to an uncertain future in Liberia. In the border town of Tabou, the transit centre for refugees has now been rehabilitated and fitted with a new water system and generator "in order to accommodate refugees awaiting departure and those who simply want protection from the hostile local population but do not want to return to Liberia because of the security situation there," UNHCR says. Meanwhile, the UN agency is planning an awareness campaign in the whole of Côte d'Ivoire to address the increasing phenomenon of xenophobia. Ms Marie says UNHCR will be "focusing on respect for refugees and calling on the local population not to blame them for the current turmoil." Some local artists, TV and radio performers, as well as street theatres
were to be hired to produce shows explaining the particularly vulnerable
situation of Liberian refugees. The campaign also was to involve the
production of T–shirts and posters conveying the message that refugees
should not be equated with rebels, the UNHCR spokeswoman said.
Sources: Based on press reports and afrol archives
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