CÔTE D'IVOIRE: rains threaten children's health

Summary: Thousands of children and families forced from their homes by ongoing fighting are at risk of potentially deadly diseases living in crowded camps without shelter or healthcare as the rainy season approaches.

(5 May 2011) - Five months after the disputed election that plunged the Ivory Coast into conflict, families who fled their homes to escape the fighting are still living and sleeping out in the open. They lack access to clean drinking water and healthcare, leaving them at high risk of disease.

“We have no house,” said Celestine, a mother of three living in a displacement camp in Duekoué, in the west of the country. “The rain comes and we’re sleeping outside. If it rains, it wakes you up and you can’t sleep. People have stomach infections, sicknesses... We can’t live like this.”

Healthcare supplies are also running dangerously low in the country as health centres and pharmacies have been looted. 27,000 people are living in squalid camps following the recent violence.

No clean water or shelter

“Conditions in these camps are already atrocious, and will only get worse as the rainy season sets in,” said Annie Bodmer-Roy, Save the Children’s spokesperson in Man, western Ivory Coast. “Without clean water, proper shelter and access to healthcare, children in these camps could find themselves caught in a breeding ground for disease, and the potential consequences are catastrophic.”

Experts predict that the onset of the rainy season could prompt a sharp increase in diseases including acute diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory infections. Camps have already been hit by heavy rains, and residents have noticed an increase in sickness, as the meagre sources of water available in the camps often aren’t treated. Diarrhoea has already claimed the lives of several people, including children.

Medical supplies have been looted

"Children living in camp conditions are incredibly vulnerable and the situation for those in need of medical care is appalling," said Michelle Brown, Save the Children's emergency advisor.

 


Further Information:

pdf: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/ivory-coast-approaching-rains-threa...

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