Families trapped in Ivory Coast church with no food: UN
Civil servants wait in a line in the hope of receiving their monthly salaries at a branch of an Ivory Coast bank, in the Deux Plateau neighborhood of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, March 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
The Associated Press
Date: Tuesday Mar. 1, 2011 11:49 AM ET
The UN said armed men blocked some 60 families without food or water from leaving a church Tuesday, as long lines of government workers tried to cash paychecks amid the deepening political and economic crisis in Ivory Coast.
The UN's refugee agency expressed alarm about the dire conditions facing people trying to escape days of violence in the Abobo district of Abidjan.
"There are reports of many dead bodies, buses burned and shops looted, and of young militiamen attacking people inside their homes," the agency said in a statement.
Others escaping the violence have been forced to pay people just to get out of the area, the agency said. Nearly 70,000 people have fled to neighbouring Liberia.
Multiple delegations of African leaders have come through Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial hub, in an attempt to persuade sitting president Laurent Gbagbo to leave office after the UN said he lost the Nov. 28 election to Alassane Ouattara.
Gbagbo has rejected all their proposals, including offers of amnesty and a comfortable exile abroad. Opponents are trying to strangle his administration financially, and the European Union has prohibited European ships from docking in its port.
The regional central bank headquartered in the neighbouring country of Senegal also has frozen Gbagbo's access to state accounts and it is unclear if he will be able to continue paying civil servants. Major international banks have shuttered their operations in Ivory Coast amid the uncertainty, prompting panic among customers.
Meanwhile, the government said Tuesday it is banning residents from filling jerrycans with gas as fears of a shortage grow. Motorists in Abidjan on Tuesday rushed to fill up their car's tanks, then went home to siphon the gas into a jerrycan, in an effort to stockpile. Some gas stations have already run out of supplies and closed.
The announcement of the ban Monday night on state TV comes as the West African nation girds itself for an economic slowdown after sanctions were slapped on Gbagbo over his refusal to cede power.
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