US President George Bush on Tuesday ordered the release of up to $11-million to aid refugees from ongoing conflicts in the Ivory Coast, Liberia and Angola.
The order came in a memorandum from Bush to Secretary of State Colin Powell certifying that the aid is in the US national interest.
The money comes from a US government fund for emergency aid to refugees first set up in 1962. The UN refugee agency estimates some 56 000 people have fled the
Ivory Coast since mid-September, when a revolt was launched against President Laurent Gbagbo by dissident army troops.
Some 60 000 Liberian refugees were in the Ivory Coast seeking shelter from the civil war in that country. – Sapa-AFP