WASHINGTON --
Ongoing violence in Cote dIvoire spurred the State Dept. to update
an existing travel warning for the African country.
The department
continues to urge U.S. citizens to defer non-essential travel to
Cote dIvoire, it said.
The department noted
that on Nov. 4, government forces launched aerial attacks on cities
in northern Cote dIvoire controlled by New Forces, an opposition
group.
The situation
remains volatile and there is the risk of conflict throughout the
country, the department said. Cell phone and landline telephone
communication with the northern New Forces-held city of Bouaki is
intermittent and electrical service has been cut since Nov. 4,
prompting a cutoff of water in many areas.
Furthermore, the
department said, Land routes to the Ghanaian border remain open but
it is too dangerous at this time to consider crossing the border by
road. There has been fighting at the international airport of
Abidjan and as of the evening of Nov. 6, all flights were
canceled.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Michael
Milligan at [email protected].