UN begins evacuating personnel out of Ivory Coast

[December 07, 2010]  ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Hundreds of residents have fled Ivory Coast, United Nations officials said Tuesday, as the U.N. also began evacuating some 500 staffers after a contentious election that resulted in both candidates claiming the presidency.

U.N. Development Program country director Andre Carvalho said hundreds of people have fled to neighboring countries, and that officials feared more would leave if violence broke out.

"While there has not been any major violence, people have started fleeing into Ghana and Liberia," he said.

The international community has recognized opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the winner of last week's runoff vote. Both Ouattara and President Laurent Gbagbo claimed victory in the poll and took oaths of office, and Gbagbo has defied pressure from France, the U.S. and the U.N. to step down.

Carvalho said the uncertainty over the poll has interrupted daily activities in the world's largest cocoa-producing nation.

"Since the election, people haven't been working and haven't been making money," he said.

If the crisis continues, he said, it could turn into a humanitarian situation because "food prices will rise."

In Abidjan, the largest city, residents said they heard gunfire overnight in a pro-Ouattara neighborhood. Residents said they were fired on by security forces, who appear to fall under Gbagbo's control. But residents of the downtrodden Abobo neighborhood described their method for warding off attacks: when they hear security forces approaching, neighbors blow on whistles and trumpets and bang on pots and pans to scare them away.

U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure told reporters Monday that the U.N. deemed it necessary to move civilian staffers to nearby Gambia and Senegal. The relocation does not affect the more than 10,000 military peacekeepers who will remain in Ivory Coast.

Once a beacon of stability in a region better known for coups and war, the West African nation has been struggling to hold the election for years.

Gbagbo's five-year mandate officially expired in 2005, but he extended his stay in office, arguing elections were impossible because armed rebels still controlled the northern half of the country.

The 2007 peace deal broke years of political stalemate, leading to the dismantlement of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone. But the vote was delayed again repeatedly because of disputes over voter rolls.

More than a quarter of the country's 20 million people are foreign immigrants who came to work on cocoa and coffee plantations in the south. Differentiating them from native Ivorians with roots and names common in neighboring countries like Burkina Faso and Mali has taken years.

About 4.8 million out of 5.7 million registered voters, according to the electoral commission, meaning turnout was high -- about 85 percent. Many had hoped a peaceful election would unify the divided nation.

"People haven't been living in a stabilized environment for years," said Carvalho, the development program director. "They were on the point of normalization with this election, but now we're going to have to start all over again. That's the sad part."

[Associated Press; By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI and MARCO CHOWN OVED]

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