The Urgent Situation in Cote d'Ivoire

Greetings, HuffPost readers. It has been awhile since I have posted. I have an important reason for returning.

Some of my close friends and colleagues work in Côte d'Ivoire, addressing the very significant HIV prevention and treatment challenge facing that country. With the world distracted by happenings in Egypt, Japan, Libya, and elsewhere, ex-President Laurent Gbagbo is exploiting the situation to commit serious human rights violations. My colleagues send the below missive regarding the situation.

(This message is cross-posted, with slight modification, at the Reality Based Community)

Friends & Colleagues,

We are writing to enlist your help in spreading the word about the deteriorating situation in Côte d'Ivoire and in pressing the United Nations to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians from imminent harm.

We collaborate closely with a team of doctors and researchers based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. This team provides medical care to over 10,000 HIV-infected individuals in that city, many through PEPfAR-related programs. Their excellent treatment services have improved the health of thousands; their pioneering research has saved the lives of even greater numbers throughout the developing world. These are brave men and women who have witnessed desperate humanitarian emergencies first-hand, who function with little support, and who are not the least bit prone to exaggeration.

Over the last few days, we have received increasingly dire reports from our colleagues. They describe the situation in Abidjan as "pre-genocidal." Several neighborhoods of the capital and outlying areas that are loyal to President-Elect Alassane Ouattara have now been fenced in by troops supporting ex-President Laurent Gbagbo. Civilians attempting to cross checkpoints have been robbed and killed. Gangs of militiamen conduct regular sweeps through neighborhood houses, ostensibly to maintain order but, in reality, to intimidate. Civilians in these neighborhoods are trapped, threatened in their own homes, terrified to leave, and not knowing where to turn for safety. For people with chronic conditions like HIV -- dependent on access to medications for their own health -- an already life-threatening situation is made even worse by the growing national drug shortage and the real danger of leaving one's home just to fill a prescription or to keep a medical appointment.

The political-military situation in Côte d'Ivoire was front-and-center in people's minds a few short weeks ago. But events in Egypt, in Libya, and in Japan have overtaken the headlines. Gbagbo has capitalized on our collective inattention to secure his illegal position and to terrorize the people. The UN needs to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians in Côte d'Ivoire. More than 400 people have been killed and some 400,000 persons displaced while UN troops have been on the ground.

Specific steps that can be taken immediately include: opening UN and French military bases to civilian refugees; establishing a humanitarian corridor to permit civilians to escape the violence and reach these bases; and jamming the state broadcasting system so that it can no longer incite violence.

There is a lot to watch around the world tonight. We can't let this situation slip from view.

 

Follow Harold Pollack on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@haroldpollack

Comments

[Mahulena]

10:40 AM on 04/02/2011

Let me set the record straight once and for all. The reason there is a medical crisis in the Ivory Coast is because the UN put an embargo on medical supplies to the Ivory Coast. The reason the is violence in the Ivory Coast is because the UN is marching around killing innocent Ivorain citizens. The Ivorian people love Laurent Gbagbo - he is their symbol of freedom. They attest they he was sent to them by God. But you would know all this, if you had ever talked with the citizens of Cote d'Ivoire (instead of just blindly trusting that Sarkozy's press is giving you an unbiased report).

[Linda Bergthold]

12:57 AM on 03/30/2011

By the way, I just saw this in Al Jazeera English -- thought I'd pass it along to your readers about the current situation in Cote D'Ivoire.

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/03/2011329154436206976.html

[Linda Bergthold]

12:24 AM on 03/30/2011

Harold, I am so glad you are posting this call for attention to the situation in the Ivory Coast. I have travelled there several times and have been very distressed by the violence, particularly toward women -- and the relative lack of attention by the national press and the lack of information from our government about what is being done to stop the killing.
Thanks for posting this!!

[birdlady5]

05:08 PM on 03/29/2011

So sad! If they had oil it would be different

[Avirahim]

01:04 PM on 03/29/2011

Thank you for writing this article, Mr. Pollack, Cote d'Ivorie does not receive anywhere near the coverage as the Middle East.

[chlai88]

09:43 PM on 03/28/2011

This is 1 case crying out for some tough-talking from President Obama after his Libya speech. Gbagbo, like Gaddafi b4 him, only understand the language of force. He's well on his way to commit atrocities that'll rival the scale of Rwanda if the UN still don't come down hard on him.