'Nearly 450,000 refugees' in wake of Ivory Coast crisis
More than 450,000 people have fled their homes because of the crisis in Ivory Coast as dead bodies litter the streets main city Abidjan following recent unrest, the UN refugee agency says.
As incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo refuses to cede power following November’s free elections to Alassane Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of last year's poll, the pressure – and conflict – is mounting.
Growing fears that the situation could descend into civil war are turning into a reality, as former rebel forces who support Ouattara still control the north while most of the army remains loyal to Gbagbo.
Ouattara flew to the Nigerian capital after the African Union endorsed him as the rightful winner of November's election. Already some 9,000 UN peacekeepers are in the country, busy monitoring a ceasefire line between the two forces.
However, the UN envoy to Ivory Coast has reportedly suggested that Gbagbo may be losing control of some of the security forces, but the latter is clinging to his position.
In the meantime, the country is quickly falling into a state of chaos. Some 370,000 people have fled their homes in Abidjan, while a further 77,000 have crossed into neighbouring Liberia, according to the UNHCR.
"We're seeing a lot of desolate scenes like dead bodies still littering the streets of [Abidjan district] Abobo where's there's been a lot of violence for weeks," UNHCR spokeswoman Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba told the BBC. "The dead bodies [are] being eaten by dogs - these dogs are becoming dangerous so the humanitarian situation is really, really difficult right now," she said.
Last year's long-delayed elections had been supposed to reunify the country - once the richest in West Africa - which has been divided since a 2002 civil war.
The UN-backed electoral commission says Ouattara won presidential elections in November, but the Constitutional Council overruled it, citing rigging in the north, where pro-Ouattara forces are in control.
