Food is in short supply in the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), where factions are fighting over the disputed presidential election of November, 2010. Incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo has refused to step down even though the United Nations, the African Union, the United States and the European Union have have recognized Alassane Ouattara as the winner.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has pledged $4.5 million to the UN World Food Program, and $7.5 million for the approximately 80,000 refugees in neighboring Liberia. Many people in Liberia have taken refugees into their own homes, providing them with food and shelter, adding to the burden of their own nutritional needs.
Getting food to the needy remains difficult and perilous. Movement is limited by insecurity and violence, transporters are unwilling to provide trucks or drivers, and the arriving rainy season makes access to remote areas even more treacherous.
The stand-off in the Ivory Coast goes back to 2002, where a civil war left Gbagbo in control of the south, and the rebels in control of the north. This has led to a “complex humanitarian emergency that has disrupted the country’s food security,” according to the World Food Program. This is particularly saddening since “during the 1990’s, Côte d’Ivoire was one of west Africa’s most stable and prosperous nations;” a beacon of West African prosperity that people spoke of as the Ivorian “miracle.”