Text/ Kent Page, UNICEF Regional Communication
Officer, Western & Central Africa Region, Dakar
Situation Overview:
West Africa today finds itself at a critical juncture, particularly amongst the countries affected by the 7-month old, ongoing Ivory Coast Sub-Regional Crisis. Cross-border conflict, ethnic bitterness and newly emerging political, social and economic challenges are seriously undermining significant gains made in recent decades in the lives and well-being of West African children and women. Ongoing violence, instability and insecurity also threaten future progress and are directly affecting the everyday existence and survival of millions of children and women. The Ivory Coast Sub-Regional Crisis reflects a crisis of leadership: political, civil and community leaders have failed to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of those they represent, especially the rights of children and women.
Over the past seven months, the crisis has had far-reaching, negative humanitarian, economic, political, security and social implications throughout the sub-region. Mere survival has become a daily challenge as people flee violence and terror, risking their lives and losing their livelihoods in the process. For these reasons, there is an urgent requirement for leadership for human security in the affected sub-region: a vital need to mobilize a critical mass of leaders across all sectors of society to create a solid foundation for sustainable peace and stability in the sub-region. Confidence building and conflict management are crucial to heal, re-build and strengthen both conflict coping capacities and the resistance of communities to violence. The following testimonies describe the devastating impact of the sub-region's crisis and conflict on the daily lives of children and women. They confirm that, in the absence of peace and stability, their hopes for a better future will remain unfulfilled. Details on UNICEF WCARO's 'Leadership for Human Security: Confidence-Building & Conflict Management' project then follow.
Insecurity and Family Upheaval:
All her family's worldly possessions are wrapped up in two large sacks: clothes; shoes; cooking utensils; pots; plates; blankets; and, a small pile of a few plastic buckets. This is all Momounata could salvage before her shantytown in Abidjan was burned and bulldozed to the ground a few weeks following the 19 September 2002 coup attempt in Ivory Coast. "My husband and I saved what we could, but there wasn't much time. Men were beaten and some women were raped. I don't ever want to go back. I'm too scared and so are my children." She gently tightens the clothwrap around her chest, drawing her year-old, baby daughter closer to her back. Momounata has spent the morning at the Ouagadougou Transit Site for people fleeing conflict in Ivory Coast, searching through mountains of war-torn belongings. Each silent, dusty, sack bears a family name: Sankara; Sawadogo; Kongo; Tapsoba. Each has a family's story to tell: a story of fear and upheaval. "We only have what's here in these sacks", say Momounata. "The rest has been stolen, burned or destroyed. We've got to start our lives all over again due to the war. We need to find jobs and our children need to go to school. We have nothing." (UNICEF provides health, child protection, education, water & sanitation support for persons affected at IDP and returnee transit sites).
Health Crisis:
"I've worked in Bouake for the past 12 years and this is the worst it's ever been", says Father Henri of the St Martin's Catholic Mission. "People are really suffering. Everything's shut down so there's no work, and salaries for government workers aren't paid anymore. Many doctors, nurses and health workers have fled and there is a lack of drugs here. Even if there were drugs, no-one can pay for them because they have no income. We see a real decline in health and nutrition because people can't afford nutritious food or pay for health care. Of great concern are measles epidemics which can be tragically, unnecessarily fatal for unvaccinated children." At the Korhogo Regional Hospital in rebel-held Ivory Coast, the pharmacist is complaining. "We've run out of drugs to treat patients and the situation is getting desperate. Look at this", he says, pointing to an exhausted mother, her head down beside her sick daughter. "She walked a long way from her village to get here, only to find that we've got the same amount of medicines as they do in the village - none." (UNICEF delivers health kits, midwife kits, essential drugs, high protein biscuits and other health and nutrition supplies in both government and rebel-held areas).
Child Traumatization:
"The children need something to distract them from what is happening here. They are very smart and they know that things are going wrong in their country", says Father Raphael Sabe, who runs the Saint Jean Bosco Mission Center in the rebel-held city of Korhogo, northern Ivory Coast. "That is why we have organized daily sports games for them. They have a chance to run, to play, to laugh and to forget that there's a war, that they're not in school and that they don't have enough to eat." Children are the most vulnerable group in any conflict situation and in the Ivory Coast, millions have had their most basic rights violated: the right to protection from armed conflict, the right to education, the right to health care, and the right to play. War and conflict can traumatize children for years. "I lived in a shanty-town in Deux Plateau, Abidjan", says 47-year old Etienne. They came about 11 p.m. They ordered all the men and boys out of the houses. Then they went in and searched everything. They stole whatever they liked and even abused the women and some of the girls, searching their private parts to see if they had hidden any money or jewellery in there. I have two children. They are 14 and 11 years old. They were terrified and crying... they told me they thought they were going to die. The next day, the men came again with two bulldozers and destroyed our wooden home. Then, they set fire to what was left. My children are very sad." (UNICEF assists in the psycho-social care of 50,000 waraffected children in Ivory Coast, strengthening monitoring mechanisms to document child rights violations and helping to identify, care for and reunify unaccompanied children with their families).
Socio-Economic Impact on Women & Children:
"I used to be able to make CFA20,000 per day selling fruits", says 28-year old Lalla. "Look at my fruit stand now - there's nothing here. All I've got to sell are baskets, but no-one buys them on this side of the border because we make them here." Lalla has been running her fruit stand in Banfora, Burkina-Faso, 50 kilometers from the Ivory Coast border, for 12 years. But today - like everyday since the Ivory Coast conflict started over 6 months ago and the Burkina-Faso-Ivory Coast border was closed - her fruit stand is empty. A small, but important and telling indicator of the negative economic impact that the Ivory Coast conflict has had on mothers like Lalla in the sub-region, mothers who are trying to earn a basic living to support their families and children. "Since the conflict started, I consider myself lucky if I make in a week what I used to make in a day," says Lalla. "The money I made before really helped my family and made a difference in my son's life. I feel bad when my son needs something for school and I have to tell him I can't buy it for him. But the worst is when he gets sick and we need to find money quickly for medicine. There are too many wars in the world and none of them do any good for anyone. People just want to eat and work and see their children going to school." (UNICEF tracks the socio-economic impact of the crisis on the sub-region so that appropriate measures can be taken to help women like Lalla find new ways to earn a living).
School's Out:
"We, the children living in Ivory Coast, want the war to stop now so that all children in Ivory Coast can go back to school. It's our right!", says 12-year old Awa loudly and clearly into the radio and television microphones. Awa is one of an estimated million children, including internally displaced children, whose schooling was brutally interrupted as a result of the Ivory Coast conflict. In February, Awa had the opportunity to resume classes following the launch of a UNICEF-supported Back to School campaign. Still, despite all the cheering and waving of the children at the Back to School launch under a large banner that reads: "Whether Displaced By War or Living in a War Zone, We Have the Right to an Education!", it is hard not to ignore the ominous drone of an army helicopter flying low overhead. And, despite the launch of the Back to School campaign, school continues to be out of the question for 500,000 children living in Ivory Coast, mostly those living in the volatile rebel-held north and lawless west of the country. Contributing factors include ongoing fighting, insecurity, teachers fleeing conflict for safer areas and the fact that salaries to teachers and government workers in rebel-held areas have been cut off since September 2002. (UNICEF supplies education & recreation kits for students & teachers).
Leadership for Human Security: Confidence-Building & Conflict Management Project Background:
In response to the sub-regional nature of the Ivory Coast crisis and its wide-ranging implications on neighboring countries, as demonstrated in the testimonies above, UNICEF WCARO has developed a 'Leadership for Human Security: Confidence Building and Conflict Management' project that comprises an innovative sub-regional response, targeting Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Ghana. The project is focused on a confidence building and conflict management approach whose goal is to promote sustainable peace and stability in the sub-region. The three main objectives of the project are to: promote and strengthen sub-regional and national leadership capacity to address and manage conflict through nonviolence; build the leadership capacity of youth and children's groups in trust building and conflict management; and, support and strengthen the integration of non-violent conflict management into emergency and community-based development services.
The project will first enhance the capacity of a critical group of parliamentarians, representatives of civil society and media as well as youth and child parliamentarians as core resource persons on conflict management. Subsequently, and with their lead, the project will expand its focus on confidence building and conflict management activities in the broader arenas of policy advocacy and political decision making, media and civil society, as well as children and youth participation. Drawing on the strength of women's partnerships, supporting women's leadership will also be critical to ensure that the structures, processes and activities negotiated throughout the process is responsive to women's specific rights and facilitates the achievement of greater equality between women and men.
Participants will reflect the cross-border nature of the sub-regional crisis and therefore will represent Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Ghana. Participants will further strengthen this cross-border dynamic by generating a range of political, social and structural actions through policy advocacy, individual and institutional capacity building, public information and the strengthening of conflict management and conflict resolution networks throughout the sub-region.
Seeking Funding Support:
UNICEF WCARO is currently seeking funding support for the "Leadership for Human Security: Confidence Building and Conflict Management" project. For more information on this important initiative, please contact Mr Ludo Welffens and Ms Babita Bisht at: lwelffens@unicef.org and bbisht@unicef.org.