Many Flee to Ghana From Ivory Coast Attacks

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) - Thousands of people fled Ivory Coast Friday, packing trains and buses bound for neighboring Burkina Faso to escape attacks on foreigners. Others are fleeing to Mali, Ghana and Niger.

Burkina Faso, beset by drought, said it cannot feed the new arrivals and warned Friday of a humanitarian disaster if the influx is not stemmed. As many as 10,000 refugees have been arriving from Ivory Coast each week.

Ivory Coast northerners and foreigners, including those born in the Ivory Coast to foreign-born parents, have come under increasingly violent attacks by security forces and civilians in the wake of an attempted coup Jan. 7-8.

Ivory Coast's current government, led by President Laurent Gbagbo, accuses foreigners of being behind the failed coup attempt. The government also blames the main opposition party, led by Alassane Dramane Ouattara, which denies involvement.

Ouattara was barred from running in recent elections after the Supreme Court ruled that he was ineligible because he was a foreigner. Ouattara, whose power base is in the northern region of Ivory Coast near Burkina Faso, insists he is Ivorian.

An estimated 30 percent of Ivory Coast's 20 million people are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Burkinabes, as citizens of Burkina Faso are called, number 3 million to 4 million, many of them working on cocoa or coffee plantations.

Many of the new arrivals in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, were visiting the country for the first time, despite carrying Burkina Faso citizenship because of their parentage.

Some claimed police and soldiers robbed them of money and identification along the way. One refugee, Paul Gasbeogo, said police at a checkpoint in Ivory Coast stripped him naked and stole nearly everything he owned. He arrived penniless in Ouagadougou on Wednesday.

``They treat us like cocoa bags,'' said Hamidou Bance, another traveler who arrived by train Wednesday after being forced to pay $16, the equivalent of nearly 10 days' salary, to police en route.

Burkina Faso was preparing for an exodus of 300,000 refugees from Ivory Coast in the coming months, said Jamano Lompo, an official with Burkina Faso's National Committee for Emergency Assistance and Rehabilitation.

He warned, however, that Burkina Faso is unable to feed the new arrivals because a drought drastically reduced last year's corn and millet crops.

``We hope that it does not reach this threshold of 300,000,'' he said. ``This number is beyond our capacity.'' He said Burkina Faso needed $80 million in food aid.

Ivory Coast has been wracked by violence and instability since a 1999 coup overturned the party that ruled the West African country for four decades.