UN Refugee Agency sounds alarm over refugee camp assault in Ivory Coast

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, July 24, 2012
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GENEVA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday said it was deeply disturbed by a deadly attack on a refugee camp in western Ivory Coast, which left at least seven dead and 52 seriously injured.

Friday's attack in Nahibly camp, which holds some 5,000 ethnic Guere people displaced after the 2010 presidential election crisis, was reportedly triggered by an overnight murder of a family of four by unidentified assailants in the nearby town of Dubekoue's Kokoma district.

Some 1,000 local ethnic Malinke people, as well as armed hunters, stormed the camp after the murder.

UNHCR says the camp was badly damaged in the attack, with a medical center and family tents destroyed. It urged local and central Ivorian authorities to provide adequate protection and shelter for those forced to flee Nahibly camp as a result of the attack.

The United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast and the country's Republican Forces on Monday announced they would put in place emergency security measures after the attacks.

Head of the Republican Forces Soumaila Bakayoko said a joint command post had been put in place to provide security at three levels. The first security cordon is run by UN peace keepers, the second by a joint unit and the third by Ivory Coast soldiers. Enditem

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