Lugautou, Nimba County-
The influx of the refugees, hailing mainly from the Ivorian town of Danane and surrounding towns and villages just a few kilometers from the Liberian border, comes on the heels of double swearing witnessed in the Ivorian city of Abidjan Saturday by both contenders.
The bridge used by some of the refugees to enter Liberia.
Speaking to FrontPageAfrica Friday in the Liberian border town of Lugautou, the refugees said they crossed into Liberia because they fear Gbagbo’s loyalists and security personnel might come after them out of the perception that their votes helped to make the Ivorian election commission to have declared Alassane Ouattara the winner of the election despite an overturned result in the former’s favor.
Martha Queketa, an Ivorian mother of three children, speaking in her native tongue, said, “We are afraid that Gbabo’s men would come after us because they say we voted Ouattara to power.”
Another refugee, Sam Pete, added, “We have been hearing them say we voted for Alassane. They said it was a betrayal on our part to vote for him when we are living in Gbabo’s territory.”
Neighboring Ivory Coast had closed its borders and stopped broadcasts of international news media into the country with an overnight curfew remaining in place up to the weekend.
Friday afternoon, they were seen carrying out temporary registration pending the swift intervention of any humanitarian organization like the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Liberia Refugees Repatriation Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) all based in hundreds of miles away in the capital Monrovia.
On Thursday, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) declared that Ouattara had won the November 28 run-off by 54.1% to Gbagbo’s 45.9% but after Gbagbo and his supporters alleged the ballot had been fraudulent in some northern region, the Constitutional Council- run by Gbagbo's ally-overruled the Commission’s decision.
The Council said Gbagbo had secured just over 51% of the vote.
The Liberian government Friday during an emergency press conference in Monrovia confirmed the arrival of the Ivorian refugees, mainly dominated by women and children, it said have crossed the border into Liberia fleeing the tension in the country as a result of election contention.
Information Minister Cletus Sieh, announcing that women and children began entering the country last Wednesday and are spread in villages of Nimba County near the Ivorian borders, said: “The situation in Ivory Coast is worrisome, the government of Liberia is very concerned because people have began leaving and coming into Liberia through the border.”
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf chairs the Mano River Union (MRU), the sub-regional organization to which Ivory Coast is the newest member after Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea had initiated the process.
Sieh added, “As head of the Mano River Union, Madam Sirleaf has begun collaborating with other West African leaders intervene”.
The Information Minister sounded the warning: “What we as Liberians have experienced don’t want the same to happen to any other country. So we tell countries in the sub-region that the best way to go is dialogue and keep the peace rather than confrontation. We want to assure our citizens that the government is very much engaged; the United Nations Mission In Liberia (UNMIL) forces and our own security forces are watching the situation so there is no need for panic.”
Despite the Ivorian authority’s restriction of the border, the Liberian border is said to remain open in order “to allow more people in while the country authorities are working out ways to accommodate those who have already crossed over.”
