COTE D'IVOIRE: Aid agencies fighting to remain impartial

Aid agencies – both UN and NGOs - are deliberately distancing themselves from the UN mission (UNOCI) so they can reach populations at risk, staff told IRIN.

Oxfam keeps its distance from UNOCI, and spells out to everyone – be it village chiefs or military forces – that they are not linked. “The basic principle for us, for NGOs, is to be courteous, cordial with everyone – armed or not… I greet people at all the roadblocks manned by the [Republic Forces of Côte d’Ivoire, Ouattara’s army] FRCI, I greet UNOCI, but it doesn’t go beyond that,” Philippe Conraud, head of humanitarian operations at Oxfam, told IRIN.

It is particularly important to remind national staff of this, he said. In tense zones where there has been ethnic conflict, as is the case in Western Côte d’Ivoire, Oxfam sends out teams from different parts of the country and different ethnic backgrounds to ensure they are not seen as partisan. “National staff’s names are on their badges, and people could associate a name with a certain political orientation... Staff do not have the right to express a political view in the name of the NGO.”

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