600 Ivorian refugees in Liberia return home

Over 600 Ivorian refugees in Liberia returned to the Ivory Coast on Tuesday,with the resumption of the voluntary repatriation operation.

The Voluntary Repatriation was suspended for a year and half due to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. A total of 646 refugees crossed the border by December 18, according to the UNHCR in Abidjan.

“The goal is that before the end of the year, 1,500 Ivorian refugees should return to Côte d’Ivoire,” said Aïchatou Mindaoudou, UN representative in Ivory Coast, during a meeting of UN Heads of Missions in West Africa, adding that this operation is carried out jointly with Liberia.

Some 220,000 Ivorians fled to Liberia during the civil war in 2002 and the post-election conflict of 2011 in which 3,000 people died. Some 38,000 people are being housed in camps along the border between the two countries.