(Ecofin Agency) - 3,000 displaced. That is new development in the number of casualties resulting from the land conflict that started in the West of Côte d’Ivoire last week. Earlier report showed two dead and 1,500 displaced. “We have numbered 3,000 displaced who are actually at the Guiglo prefecture. This is a serious humanitarian crisis,” said the director of cabinet of the interior minister, Vincent Toh Bi, in an interview with news website Connection ivoirienne.

“This conflict is mainly due to the fact that forests, classified or not, are disputed by the minority and majority ethnicities” of the region, according to the official.

Indeed, the Guéré majority started fighting with the Baoulé minority last month over the right to use the lands of the Goin-débé classified forest that are said to be highly fertile.