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UN aid agencies forced to limit work during renewed fighting in Côte d'Ivoire

UN aid agencies forced to limit work during renewed fighting in Côte d'Ivoire

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With six of their vehicles no longer available and roadblocks proliferating, United Nations humanitarian agencies are struggling to continue their work in Côte d'Ivoire, the world's largest exporter of cocoa, during government bombardment of rebel-held areas, a UN spokesman said today.

The bombing around the rebel Forces Nouvelles-controlled towns of Bouaké and Korhogo has forced the agencies to restrict staff movements, spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Five agency vehicles were "confiscated" by armed groups and a sixth was destroyed.

Continued hostilities could prevent farmers from going to their fields, affecting the harvesting of food, as well as the biggest revenue earner in the south and west, cocoa, he said.

Ceasefire agreements have been signed - the latest having been the Accra III Agreement -each aimed at ending the civil strife which has killed thousands and uprooted more than a million people. A zone policed by UN peacekeepers and French Licorne forces divides the West African country in two.

In the north, electricity had been cut off to Forces Nouvelles areas, creating a shortage of clean water, since the water pumps run on electricity, and impeding health care.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it has been protecting former child soldiers who have been living at a demobilization site, Mr. Eckhard said.

The two-year-old crisis began with a failed coup against President Laurent Gbagbo. Rebel groups said his election in 2000 was not legitimate because opposition leader Alassane Ouattara had been barred from taking part. Mr. Ouattara's nationality had been questioned, but the justice system has since ruled in his favour.

Since the start of the confrontation an estimated 70 per cent of the health services workers in the rebel-held north have left their posts, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said yesterday. Back in May there was only one doctor for around 200,000 people in one of the most affected areas.

UNICEF has estimated that with the lack of teachers, or the displacement and impoverishment of families, around 700,000 children have been out of school in the past two years.