Background reading

Most importantly, the humanitarian crisis provoked by this conflict (in addition to recent violence in Liberia) has yet to be addressed. After several years of conflict, nearly a year of war, and several months of falling victim to violence and displacement, civilians in Western C?d’Ivoire have all but been crushed under the weight of violence-driven social and economic upheaval and decline. The intertwined variables of violence, malnutrition and the collapse of the healthcare system feature most prominently in measuring the dynamics of the conflict’s repercussions on the region’s civilian population. Outright war and loose predatory elements have generated tens of thousands of displaced, many of who suffered or witnessed grisly human rights abuses and watched their villages being looted and burned. Both loyalists and rebels have been accused of committing these abuses. Liberian mercenaries, used by both sides of the conflict, are often cited as being responsible for the lion’s share of such abuses. The civilian population remains profoundly in need of humanitarian intervention and a strong campaign of advocacy on their behalf.