DAKAR, 24 March 2011 (IRIN) - Northern Côte d'Ivoire is without electricity after the government of Laurent Gbagbo, according to the electric company, ordered power cut off for the second time in less than a month. The outage – from the evening of 23 March – comes as people arrive by the busload in northern towns, fleeing violence in the commercial capital Abidjan.

"People have been streaming in endlessly for the past few days," a resident of the northwestern city of Odienné told IRIN. "Here is how Gbagbo can make sure the people suffer – cut the electricity again."

The affected areas are the north, central and western departments controlled by anti-Gbagbo forces since a 2002 rebellion.

A staffer with the utility operator Compagnie Ivoirienne d'Electricité (CIE) said people working for the Gbagbo government came to the electricity distribution centre in Abidjan and turned off power to the zones.

"It was the same scenario as the last time [in February]; they come and turn it off when they wish," the CIE worker told IRIN. "There seems to be no problem with the grid."

A health official in the centre-north city of Bouaké said the area has registered five cases of cholera since the February outage, which lasted five days and resulted in disruptions in drinking water supply.

"Unfortunately it is the most fragile populations who bear the brunt of this," Kouyaté Karim, departmental health director, told IRIN.

People in Bouaké, Korhogo and Odienné told IRIN power went out between 6 pm and 7 pm on 23 March.

Source: The Integrated Regional Information Networks (http://www.irinnews.org )