Residents and stranded passengers at Elubo in the Western region are currently facing food shortage as the effect of closure of the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire border takes its toll on the people there. The closure has left scores of commuters from Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire stranded at Elubo who say they have had to go days without access to food. With no clear indication of when the border will be opened, some residents at the border tell Joy News they have been forced to live under harsh conditions. “Right now the food problem is high; we can’t get food to eat. We buy rice from Cote d’Ivoire, so now there is no rice here…it is terrible, no two ways,” a resident said. Another person claimed: “It is very difficult at Elubo, food, lorry, everything. So we are begging government to go and beg the Ivorian government to open the border.” Meanwhile, information available to Joy News indicates some commuters have been using the Tano River and other unapproved routes to cross the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire border. Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Immigration Service, Francis Palmdetsi acknowledged that the Border Patrol Unit of the Service is responsible for ensuring that unapproved routes are not used by travelers. He told Joy News, “We also know that the Ivorian border closure situation is frustrating persons we called border residents. These are residents who usually cross the border on daily basis for their social and economic activities. “With this closure, they are quite frustrated and stranded. Some have their farms on the other side.” Although it is difficult to restrict border residents who out of desperation would want to go to their farms, he said, other travelers, who do not fall within the five kilometer radius of the border, are not allowed to cross the border.