A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire, and returning to Liberia at least once, before going to Ghana.
Côte d’Ivoire
In 1990, we ran to Sierra Leone. We took a bus there and lived in Bo-
Waterside among the Sierra Leoneans for one year. When there was an
attack on the border, we fled to Guinea. That was in 1991. We lived on a
football field in Conakry for one month. We entered Côte d’Ivoire later that
year. We went to Toulépleu and lived there with the Ivorians for six years.
In 1997 we returned to Liberia. We went back to live in Sinkor right before
the presidential election. We spent one year in Monrovia until we had to run
again…We came back to Toulépleu in September 1998. In September 2001 I
came to Ghana. I came alone, and then my family joined me here. 151
Côte d’Ivoire, alone among
the host countries for Liberian
refugees, did not
initially support camps.
Instead, Liberians were inte-
grated with the local population
in the Zone d’Accueil
des Refugies. 152 The Zone
d’Accueil des Refugies
was made up of the four
departments of Danané,
Toulépleu, Guiglo, and
Tabou communities on the
Ivorian/Liberian border. 153
In 1995, one camp was
established at Nicla after an
armed incursion from Liberia into Taï, during which Liberians and Ivorians were killed. 154 In 2001, to
qualify for assistance, UNHCR required incoming refugees to settle at Nicla, rather than integrating
within the Zone d’Accueil des Refugies. 155
Because ethnic groups exist across national borders in the sub-region, many refugees who fled to Côte
d’Ivoire settled in ethnic enclaves. For example, the Gio settled in the area of Danané and the Krahn
settled in the area of Guiglo where Ivorians of the same ethnic group were living. 156 As of 2001, more
than 122,000 Liberians were living in Côte d’Ivoire. 157
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