UN: One million flee Cote d'Ivoire violence

Up to one million people have fled Ivory Coast to safer areas amid fears of an all-out civil war, the UN refugee agency has said.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other aid agencies said they have been unable to access the country's west due to the fighting in the capital and other areas.

It cited estimates of between 700,000 and one million people displaced, largely from the city of Abidjan, including the heavily-populated districts of Abobo, Adjamame, Williamsville and Yopougon.

"The massive displacement in Abidjan and elsewhere is being fuelled by fears of all-out war," Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, on Friday said in Geneva.

She said the closure of banks and businesses is also causing economic chaos in the West African country, with rising unemployment and food prices.

Just over a week ago the UNHCR put the number of displaced in Ivory Coast at around half a million, Fleming said, adding that the latest estimates were made by the agency's own staff on the ground.

The UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) warned that the situation in the rural west of Ivory Coast was uncertain, with fighting going on in the area. (read more)