Highlights

 

·       
New police officers join UNOCI;

·       
UNOCI continues observing and
assisting identification process ;

·       
FGM perpetrators arrested in
Bouaké.

 

UNOCI Police Force Strengthened

 

Thirty-eight new police officers have joined UNOCI, bringing the total number of
civilian police in the mission to 413. UNOCI also has 750 Formed Police. The new
officers - from Senegal, Niger, Jordan and Burundi - met with UNOCI's Acting
Police Commissioner, Colonel Pierre-André Campiche, who gave them an overview of
the situation and their duties, and welcomed them to UNOCI. The officers will
undertake two weeks of intensive orientation before being deployed to team sites
throughout the country.

 

Electoral

 

Today, peacekeepers from the Pakistani battalion
supervised the identification and voter registration process in some sensitive
neighbourhoods of Bouaké, while UNOCI's Electoral
Assistance Division sent a team to observe the process in the northern town of
Tengrela. UNOCI continued to provide transportation for various agents working
on this process, and to extend other logistical support around the country.

 

In
the eastern town of Bondoukou, the regional commissioners of the Independent
Electoral Commission (IEC) have addressed an official letter to the President of
the Independent Electoral Commission, Mr Robert Mambé, to inform him of their
decision not to participate in the identification and voter registration
operation as of 6 January since their commissions are not officially in session,
which means they cannot be paid.

 

Social / Economic

 

UNPOL reported on Monday that there is a severe fuel shortage in the central
town of Daoukro and surrounding areas since Sunday. The current shortage is
believed to be the result of a decision by traders to withdraw a significant
quantity of fuel from the market in order to minimize their losses in the event
of a price reduction. The Ivorian Government has opened discussions with trade
unions with regard to the possibility of a general oil price reduction and the
magnitude of such a reduction. No new price so far has been announced, but
people in Daoukro are being asked to pay exorbitant prices for fuel, if they can
find it.

 

Human Rights

 

UNPOL and UNOCI Human Rights Unit reported the arrest last week in Bouaké, of
two women accused of complicity with the excision of young girls. Under Ivorian
law, excision is a criminal act that is severely punished. In the Vallée du
Bandama Region, which includes Bouaké, UNOCI has undertaken several campaigns to
raise the population's awareness about the tragic consequences of excision. One
such campaign was jointly carried out in Bouaké last month with UNFPA during the
"Week of Action against Gender-Based Violence".

 

Ends