03/05/2007

Contacts: Maureen Lynch and Dawn Calabia
ri@refugeesinternational.org or 202.828.0110


Conflict’s highest toll is often exacted on a country’s most valuable and vulnerable resource, its children. Recent United Nations Security Council Resolutions have put Côte d’Ivoire on track for elections late next year and extended the UN peacekeeping mission, but have provided little help in improving the every day life for millions of children and youth at risk due to Côte d’Ivoire’s continuing conflict.

The impact of conflict on children can be injury, loss of parents, separation from loved ones, displacement, exploitation and abuse, an end to education and healthcare, recruitment into fighting forces, and sometimes the loss of an effective nationality. The presence of an ongoing conflict does not absolve state or non-state actors from their obligations under humanitarian law to protect children. More can and must be done by the government, the parties to the conflict, and by the international community to safeguard the development of Côte d’Ivoire’s best hope for a brighter future.

Côte d’Ivoire’s current struggle began in 2002 when a failed military coup resulted in division of the country into two territories separated by a buffer zone or “zone of confidence.” The southern part of the country is controlled by a transitional government, while the north is under the Forces Nouvelles. The zone of confidence is patrolled by the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and the French forces, Licorne, but lacks any effective policing or justice system.

The country’s president and the leader of the Forces Nouvelles recently signed an agreement to reunite the country, but earlier agreements have failed, and the people—particularly children—continue to suffer. The October 2006 UN Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict in Côte d’Ivoire reported that fighting and violence cost many lives and left thousands of children orphaned. The resulting destruction of government offices and widespread civilian displacement meant many families lost their identity documents and their livelihoods. Parties to the conflict have linked the peace agreement requirement to issue identification documents and create new voter rolls to the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of armed groups and the holding of elections.

Estimates of the number of people internally displaced range from 500,000 to over 2 million, though no one really knows just how many people, adults or children, were forced to flee their homes and how many families remain separated. The International Committee of the Red Cross provides tracing services and reunites both refugee and internally displaced families, but there are many outstanding cases. Large numbers of children in the country can not prove their citizenship and thus are cut off from government assistance, education, and health care. With a declining economy and increasing poverty, underage children are working in agriculture or cocoa production, in small trading and even prostitution, doing what they can to survive. International and non-governmental agencies are working to develop protection mechanisms, but the needs in Côte d’Ivoire exceed their current level of ability and funding.

There is only one official camp for the internally displaced, The Center for Assistance to Temporarily Displaced (CATD) in Guiglo. It houses over 7,000 persons, mostly ethnic Burkinabe (identifying people once from Burkina Faso). Parents and children, who fled attacks and violence, decried the lack of education and skills training in the overcrowded camp. Camp leaders and the youth group explained their need for education as well as income generation activities to improve their living situation, provide clothing, and supplement their diets. One resourceful woman at CATD started a tailoring apprentice program to help a group of 20 young women, but leaders remain concerned that most of the youth and young adults had nothing to do. “We have no hope here so please resettle us somewhere” said the youth spokesman as he handed the RI team a copy of his statement to serve as a reminder.

The situation is even more difficult for displaced people who fled to urban areas, like those now residing in shantytowns in and around Abidjan. RI interviewed a female-headed household in their small dark shack. The two adult women said their family of seven had to flee their home about four years ago, leaving their agricultural and small businesses behind. Two brothers had been killed. “When the war started, the fighters didn’t tell the difference in people, but later they killed children and women too,” one woman said. The family lived in the bush for two years and later found their way to Abidjan by bus. Rebels destroyed one woman’s identification document. The other woman had lost hers and had only a copy which she feared was probably useless.

Initially an uncle had opened his door to the women and their children, but when the cost of feeding and sheltering them became prohibitive, he had to ask them to leave and find a room in the less expensive outskirts of the city. Now they are trying to learn carpet making so they might be able to find work and support themselves. On the day RI visited, a 16-year-old boy stood quietly, partially hidden in the shadows. He only stepped forward to help when the baby or one of the younger children needed attention. One sister said, “We don’t have papers for him. The government will not issue a paper to a child not born in this place. He hasn’t been to school, so we don’t know what we can do. Without a birth certificate he cannot travel alone or he would have to pay a lot of money as bribes. We cannot return to Man [their city of origin].” They said that many other families are in the same situation. A business woman in nearby Grand Bassam explained that she had given money and other things to displaced children who wandered around and were obviously getting poorer and poorer. “They have nothing.” Then she added, “We just want peace….so all of us can live as we did before the war.”

War-related displacement and deaths have left a large number of children orphaned or alone. One center in Bouake in the north hosts 37 children between the ages of 5 and 17 and provides education and foster care with local families for about another 100 homeless youth. The director, a former government teacher, said, “These are children who must reclaim their rights. Some of them are ex-child soldiers. When a community sees kids in difficult circumstances, they tell us, or bring them here, or we go there to see. Or we go to a town and some are in the street. At first other families would take care of the children, but afterwards people can’t afford to help anymore. Children end up in the street. There are more girls than boys here. Boys can do hard work, but the girls are not seen as economically useful, so their lot is even harder. Some don’t have papers.” This local effort is funded by private donations and some UN assistance.

The numbers of children associated with fighting forces are small, probably in the high hundreds to low thousands. Children continue to be associated with the armed forces and militia groups as well as with the Forces Nouvelles. UNICEF, Save the Children and other international and non-governmental agencies are working to end the use of child soldiers and to provide assistance. A series of programs reunited 500 children with their families and placed others who cannot rejoin their families in host families. Youth no longer of school age can attend non-formal education programs teaching life skills, prevention of HIV-AIDS, as well as soap making, embroidery, carpentry, and animal breeding. Other programs provide recreation and literacy training. The agencies work together to prevent militants from recruiting new or previously engaged children. At the time of RI’s visit, it was widely reported that in a recent month over 100 children had come from Liberia to fight.

Côte d’Ivoire’s education system is under severe stress, in large part due to the number of teachers who fled the conflict and damaged facilities. The International Rescue Committee has started to rehabilitate schools, but teachers are reluctant to come back to the north. Volunteers have kept the system functioning, but barely. Access to schools has improved due to outreach school registration campaigns specifically targeting girls’ enrollment, but many barriers remain. Problems remain with book distribution, the inability to register without a birth certificate, and the inability of parents to afford small fees or buy school supplies. Political sensitivities regarding voter registration have spilled over onto efforts to correct birth registrations or reissue such documents, particularly for children not living in the place of their birth.

Good health is becoming a luxury. Once banished diseases are flourishing again, and there have been outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever. The Secretary-General reported that between May and July 2005 the UNOCI Human Rights Division recorded approximately 200 cases of sexual violence against children and women. The violence and the breakdown of displaced families are perhaps to blame for an increase in sexual abuse. An earlier UNFPA study found that 31 percent of girls interviewed admitted having been forced or coerced into non-consensual sexual relations.

There is no question that a protection and human rights emergency exists in Côte d’Ivoire with severe repercussions on the physical and mental health of children.

Refugees International Recommends:

• The Government of Côte d’Ivoire recognize and fully evaluate the impact of conflict on its children and develop measures to better safeguard the country’s children.
• The Government of Côte d’Ivoire, with the support of international donors as necessary, reinvest in education and health systems, with a special focus on girls and separated children’s needs.
• The Government of Côte d’Ivoire and local officials establish a no-tolerance approach to gender-based violence, particularly against children and youth and conduct public education campaigns for the public and for its work force.
• UNICEF increas its efforts to improve birth registration and work with UNOCI and the Prime Minister’s office to issue birth certificates that would permit children to attend school.
• UNHCR, under its cluster approach, with the UN country team and local officials undertake need surveys of the urban displaced and assist in providing the appropriate assistance.
• All parties increase their cooperation in expediting family reunification and in issuance of needed identity documents.