Côte d'Ivoire hosted approximately 130,000 refugees and asylum seekers at the end of 1998, including about 125,000 from Liberia, nearly 2,000 from Sierra Leone, and fewer than 1,000 from other countries.

Approximately 100,000 Liberian refugees repatriated from Côte d'Ivoire during the year.

Refugees from Liberia

Most of the 125,000 refugees who remained in Côte d'Ivoire arrived in the early 1990s to escape Liberia's civil war. The end of Liberia's conflict in 1996 and its peaceful presidential election in 1997 opened the door to large-scale repatriation from Côte d'Ivoire.

The size of the Liberian refugee population has long been unclear because of poor registration procedures, large numbers of refugees who lived on their own, and regular movements of people back and forth across the border. A UNHCR registration exercise in 1997, for example, found that the Liberian refugee population in Côte d'Ivoire was onethird smaller than earlier estimates.

Of the estimated 125,000 Liberian refugees remaining in Côte d'Ivoire at year's end, at least 86,000 had registered with UNHCR to receive food assistance.

UNHCR began organized repatriation convoys in late January. By the end of 1998, more than 23,000 Liberian refugees had returned home with UNHCR assistance. Although the precise number of Liberian refugees who spontaneously repatriated was unknown, an estimated 80,000 Liberian refugees returned home from Côte d'Ivoire on their own.

Many Liberian refugees, heads of households in particular, gradually repatriated in order to rebuild their homes while leaving other family members in Côte d'Ivoire. Given the widespread destruction in Liberia caused by years of civil war, they often returned to Côte d'Ivoire for hard to-find items ranging from construction materials to shoes, according to UNHCR. Others returned to refugee zones for free medical care or to keep their children in free schools, aid agencies reported.

Ethnic politics continued to influence Liberian repatriation in 1998. Although many refugees returned home, refugees from certain ethnic groups were more cautious, fearing possible persecution under Liberia's new government because of unresolved rivalries from the civil war.

Relatively few refugees in Côte d'Ivoire lived in typical refugee camps. Liberian refugees remained in urban centers and official refugee zones in the regions of Tabou and Danané near the Côte d'Ivoire-Liberia border. Only refugees living in the zones were eligible for material assistance, UNHCR reported.

New Arrivals from Liberia

Following a brief outbreak of violence in the streets of Liberia's capital in midSeptember, thousands of Liberians fled to Côte d'Ivoire. By the end of 1998, more than 14,000 new refugees had arrived. The vast majority were ethnic Krahn. At year's end, they remained in villages along the border, awaiting transfer to a single camp in the western border region. The new influx deterred repatriation of other ethnic Krahn from Côte d'Ivoire.

Other Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Côte d'Ivoire hosted more than 2,000 other refugees and asylum seekers at the end of 1998.

Nearly 2,000 Sierra Leonean refugees were registered in the Danané area, in northwestern Côte d'Ivoire. Nearly 700 other refugees and asylum seekers from various countries were also present. Many resided in the capital, Abidjan.

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