**2. Background**

What is the context of psycho trauma in Côte d'Ivoire? It is rather difficult to trace back the first actions on psycho trauma.

Although the country had previously passed through a number of situations and catastrophes with a number of traumatic experiences, no significant interventions to improve people's mental health in situations of mass trauma had been instituted.

War in Côte d'Ivoire and Management of Child's Post Traumatic Stress Disorders 161

In the night of 18 to 19 September 2002, a number of towns were attacked simultaneously: Korhogo in the North, Man in the West, Bouake in the central region, and Abidjan in the

The military and political crisis, facing Côte d'Ivoire at that moment would give birth to a humanitarian catastrophe, without precedent in the history of the country, and that would result in loss of human life among the civilian population affecting manily women and children. Around 1,500,000 persons were forced to leave the theater of war, (OCHA, 2004) either to seek refuge in areas under government control, or to seek shelter in neighboring

More than 2,600 teachers and 704,800 students were displaced, including about 59,000 who were able to resume classes in the institutions labeled as relay schools in the free zone. But,

This mass movement of traumatized people and the disorganization of the social structure yielded dramatic health, social and psychic consequences yet to be investigated and

All these displaced persons had many difficulties to readapt because few of them received psychological support as part of handling war trauma. The absence of medico-psychological

The phenomenon of child soldiers actually appeared in December 2002, on the occasion of the outbreak of a new tension source in the western region. The interethnic conflicts took around three years, in an area where many factions, including those from Liberia, a neighboring country fought the battles. This tension source developed in a region that has been receiving traditionally a number of Ivoirians and foreigners for years, and also, since

Few documents have reported the intervention undertaken since 1999, and few research works have explored this issue. No one can deny that some activity reports did exist, but they are yet to be known by the public. It is only in the course of the 2002 war that we discovered traces of the humanitarian interventions undertaken. Theses and dissertations carried out at National Institute of Public Health (INSP). Unit Taking over an Integrated of Abidjan (UPECI), at the psychiatric hospital of Bingerville (in the district of Abidjan) as well as at the *Centre Mie N'Gou of Yamoussoukro* (Bissouma& al, 2005; Kouadio, 2004; Kouakou, 2003), documented the psychopathological facts and disorders and confirmed the data of the international literature on the social, economic, psychological and medical consequences of the Ivorian war. These consequences may be categorized mainly into an increase in unemployment rate of 87.73% in Yamoussoukro after the war versus 21.82% before the war; an increase in psychological disturbances in the form mainly of anxiety, depressive and psychotic disorders; an increase insomnia, aggressive behavior and psychosomatic disorders, such as high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus; and the non-adaptation of the civilian populations to their host environments manifested by loss of interest in productive

The consequences of this war have been dominated by post-traumatic stress and co-morbid signs with 93% of the victims experiencing sleeplessness and loss of appetite, depression, and an increase in consumption of toxic products(alcohol, tobacco, drug), and a certain

only few of those displaced children did enjoy psychological health.

and social intervention due to lack of qualified health personnel was visible.

**2.3 The 2002 war** 

countries (400,000 Ivoirian refugees).

the Liberian war, some refugee camps.

**2.4 Actions on behalf of traumatized people** 

degree of loss of social values for most of the population.

South.

addressed.

activities.
