KEY DEVELOPMENTS

· Due to improved security and availability of humanitarian assistance in areas of return, more than 242,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Côte d’Ivoire and Ivorian refugees in eastern Liberia have returned home in total, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In western Côte d’Ivoire, approximately 90 percent of IDPs from Haut-Sassandra Region and more than 60 percent of IDPs from Moyen-Cavally and Dix-Huit Montagnes regions have returned home, according to a U.N. World Food Program (WFP) assessment conducted between July 24 and August 5. More than 155,000 displaced Ivorians returned home during the month of August alone, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

· On August 4 and 5, USAID staff accompanied U.S. Representative to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture Ertharin Cousin and U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Linda Thomas-Greenfield to Nimba County in eastern Liberia. The delegation visited refugee camps and host communities, observing food security and infrastructure rehabilitation projects managed by WFP and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). To improve humanitarian access to border-area villages, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) provided $500,000 to WFP earlier this year to rehabilitate roads in eastern Liberia.

· To address ongoing humanitarian needs in Côte d’Ivoire, USAID/OFDA recently provided more than $1.6 million in additional funding for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and protection interventions for approximately 90,000 conflict-affected people. In addition, USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (USAID/FFP) recently provided more than $8.6 million in additional funding for food security and livelihoods activities benefiting 448,000 IDPs and host community members in Côte d’Ivoire. To date in FY 2011, the U.S. Government has provided more than $70 million for humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected areas in Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and neighboring countries.