ABIDJAN, 19 October 2007 (IRIN) - Almost a quarter of households in rural parts of Cote d'Ivoire suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition is spreading, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warns.

"The main part of the poverty [in Cote d'Ivoire] is found in rural areas," Marie-Noëlle Koyara told journalists on 18 October. According to the statistics of FAO, between 9 and 22 percent of rural households are either moderately or chronically food insecure.

Aid agencies have been warning for months that there is mounting evidence of worsening malnutrition, especially in northern Cote d'Ivoire which is traditionally poorer than the south.

Koyara said FAO's research confirmed malnutrition is "more and more worrying". André Carvalho, country director for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said poverty is on the rise.

A brief civil war in 2002 divided Cote d'Ivoire into the rebel-held north and government controlled south, crimping the lucrative cocoa industry and slowing economic exchanges around the country.

"The war displaced a large part of the population from their home territory," Carvalho said. "Many people have become refugees or moved to Abidjan which interrupted their livelihoods".

"The objective of reducing absolute poverty in Cote d'Ivoire will be very difficult to achieve, unless more energy is devoted to it," he said.

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