The Governments of Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire have signed an Agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Ivorian refugees from Liberia. The other signatory, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), is finalizing the technical details of the Framework after which its Representative in Côte d'Ivoire will sign the Tripartite Agreement. UNHCR puts the estimated figure of Ivorian refugees that have fled to Liberia following Côte d'Ivoire's post-election stalemate at over 171,362. They are mainly concentrated in Nimba, Grand Gedeh, River Gee, and Maryland counties. Speaking at the signing ceremony at the Ministry of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abidjan, the Ivorian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is also Minister of State, Kablan Duncan praised Côte d'IvoireLiberia relations over the years and the upward trend since the incumbency of President Alassane Quattara.
He reiterated the need to speedily concretize the bilateral relations especially within the various sub-regional organizational frameworks like the Mano River Union and ECOWAS.
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