Ali Brings Food To Ivory Coast

Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali arrived in Ivory Coast on a mission to deliver food to Liberian refugees.

“If I’m told there’s a problem, I do all I can to help,” said Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s syndrome.

Ali planned to travel to San Pedro, where tens of thousands of refugees who fled Liberia’s seven-year civil war are living.

He and an entourage will deliver food to 400 orphans whose plight came to Ali’s attention when a nun caring for the children wrote him a letter asking for help.

The war in neighboring Liberia ended with a peace accord signed last year, but many of the estimated 350,000 refugees in Ivory Coast have not returned home because their villages were destroyed.

Ali, 55, was a three-time heavyweight champion and won the Olympic gold medal in Rome in 1960.