Highlights

- Mayors and their staff strike over finance issues
- Bouake University students threaten to restart violent protest

Mayors' strike

Mayors and their staff in most parts of Côte d'Ivoire have been on an indefinite strike since yesterday in protest against the non-payment of salary arrears and administrative budgets which they claim are far too small to function normally. The strike will have a knock on effect on the identification and voter registration operation and people will not be able to get identification papers such as birth certificate in order to be identified and enrolled on the voters' list. However some civil service employees have said that a minimum service will be maintained in some area.

Security

Bouaké University students who carried out violent protests against their non-involvement in the choosing of beneficiaries for student grants in the city in November 2008 are threatening to restart their action. The students have told UNOCI that if they do receive grants or other financial support by 22 December 2008, they will demonstrate.

Seven inmates were wounded and five escaped during the riots in Abidjan prison at the weekend. The situation is calm but security forces remain on high alert. In Man (west), five prisoners who escaped from the local prison earlier this month have been recaptured. The remaining 20 escapees are suspected to be hiding in the former zone of confidence in the Bonoufla area.

Information and sensitization

UNOCI yesterday organized a training workshop on the Culture of Peace in Korhogo for 40 participants from 20 NGOs and associations based in the Savane region (north) on the theme "The involvement of NGOs and associations in the promotion of a culture of peace". The aim of the workshop was to give the NGOs and associations the tools needed to promote a culture of peace and support their sensitisation campaigns.

Humanitarian

As part of a series of activities to mark UN Volunteer Day, UNOCI volunteers working in the western city of Man donated rice, oil, soap, sugar, milk, gloves and brooms to a local centre for children. Some of the 60 children living at the centre are orphans while others have been abandoned by their families who accused them of witchcraft following a death in the family.

Human Rights

The Regional Human Rights Office in Korhogo met with the Forces Nouvelles Commander of Ferkessédougou Sector (north), Captain Fofana Inza, to discuss the alleged ill-treatment and illegal detention of an Armed Forces of the Forces Nouvelles (FAFN) soldier. The soldier was accused of selling 'road passage tickets' on the Ferkessédougou-Korhogo road, and of planning an attack against the Sector Commander, allegedly on the orders of the dissident Sergeant Coulibably Ibrahim, alias 'IB', widely regarded as a rival to Prime Minister Guillaume Soro for leadership of the Forces Nouvelles. The soldier, who was released on 13 December 2008, was reportedly taken from his home on 7 December 2008 by five FAFN soldiers who beat him with the butts of their guns and tortured him with bayonets before detaining him in the Ferkessédougou Police Station. Captain Inza, who had ordered the soldier released so he could receive medical treatment told the Office that he would punish those responsible.