Major developments
The crisis that erupted in Côte d’Ivoire in September 2002 continued to have implications for operations in neighbouring countries in 2003. While the anticipated mass exodus did not materialize, there was considerable upheaval in border zones of adjacent countries as sizeable numbers of refugees fled alongside economic migrants from West African States. Early in the year thousands of Ivorian and third country nationals fled to eastern Liberia together with Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees.
Many were subsequently uprooted by fresh conflict and forced into further displacement inside Liberia, into Guinea or back to war-affected areas in western Côte d’Ivoire. The Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement signed in January 2003 did not yield all of the results expected, and Côte d’Ivoire remains divided, with the north under the control of the Forces nouvelles.