The ICRC is continuing to respond to the vital needs of conflict victims in the north and west of the country.
In Duékoué, the organization has set up emergency shelters covering 1,600 square metres on the premises of the Catholic mission for more than 3,000 displaced people. It has also improved the lighting to boost security for those who have taken refuge there - mainly women and children - and provided emergency supplies (cloth for clothing, sleeping mats, cooking utensils and hygiene items) for 500 families. In addition, together with the Red Cross Society of Côte d'Ivoire, the ICRC has provided sanitation for the villages of Petit-Duékouéand Guitrozonto facilitate a swift return of the inhabitants.
In Man, the Ivorian Red Cross has improved sanitation in the reception centre for displaced people and delivered sleeping mats, cloth, buckets, soap, cooking utensils and chlorine for purifying water.
Further to the north, in the town of Korhogo, where people have been enduring an exceptionally severe drought, the ICRC has finished setting up three plants producing and distributing clean drinking water. Two of these are supplied by bore holes that engineers from the ICRC and the Ivorian water-supply network (SODECI) repaired. Together, the three water stations can store and distribute more than 500,000 litres of drinking water every day - enough to meet the daily survival requirement for up to 100,000 people. Water from the stations will also be delivered by truck on a daily basis to a dozen UNICEF distribution points throughout the town. These emergency arrangements will remain in place until the reservoir behind the local dam is filled by the rains that have just begun.
In Katiola, the ICRC is using tanker trucks to supply the hospital with drinking water, and holding awareness-raising sessions in which people are encouraged not to waste water.
For further information, please contact:
Kim Gordon-Bates, ICRC Abidjan, tel. +225 22 400 070 / +225 05 391 602
Marco Yuri Jiménez Rodríguez, ICRC Geneva, tel. +41 22 730 22 71
o rvisit our website: www.icrc.org