Liberian refugees in Cote d'Ivoire protest to demand UN assistance

Hundreds of Liberian refugees on Sunday held protests in Cote d'Ivoire's southwestern region of Tabou to demand humanitarian assistance, a humanitarian source said.

The protesters organized a sit-in in front of the local offices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and vowed to remain there until a solution to their problem is found.

"Since 2006, we have not been assisted by the UNHCR, yet we have the organization's family card. We have been abandoned in hunger and misery," the refugees' spokesman John Sumo Mulbahzumo said.

"In 2012, we were asked to choose either voluntary repatriation to Liberia, integration or resettlement in a third party country. We chose resettlement in a third country," Mulbahzumo said, noting that the resettlement was not fulfilled.

However, the UNHCR spokesman in Tabou, Francois Kernin, explained that the refugee status of the protesters had been halted because the situation in Liberia had improved.

"Their refugee status ended. We have nothing to do with them because they are not refugees," he said.

He said the Liberians in the region are now being considered as citizens of the Economic Community of West African States, and are now under the watch of Cote d'Ivoire authorities.

Civil wars were witnessed in Liberia between 1989 to 1997, and later 1999 to 2003, and forced thousands of Liberians to seek refuge in neighboring countries, including Cote d'Ivoire. Endi