Highlights

- SRSG Choi briefs TAM delegation
- PDSRSG tells roundtable UNOCI is helping to promote human rights in Côte d'Ivoire
- Redeployed civil servants face resettlement difficulties in Bafing region

Technical Assessment Mission

SRSG Y.J Choi today briefed a Technical Assessment Mission (TAM) delegation from New York over a working lunch. The visiting team received a briefing on the latest developments on the peace process and on the way forward. In turn, some TAM members apprised SRSG Choi of their meeting with commanders of the Integrated Command Centre (ICC) in Yamoussoukro on the Centre's activities held on 6 December. The ICC had told the delegation that it had profiled 90% of the 36,000 FAFN soldiers, among whom 11,374 had been demobilized while 3,766 are willing to join the new unified army which is yet to be established. The Centre announced that the profiling of militia groups would start mid December thanks to funding from the UN Development Fund (UNDP). On 7 December 2008, the TAM delegation went to Korhogo (north), where it was briefed by UNOCI's Regional head of office on the Mission's activities in the area.

Human Rights

The Principal Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Côte d'Ivoire, Abou Moussa, today presided over a roundtable discussion to assess the Korhogo Declaration, signed in 2007 on International Human Rights Day, which stated that all Ivorians had a responsibility to respect human rights. Mr. Moussa reminded participants at the gathering that the Declaration had called for concrete action to improve the human rights situation in Cote d'Ivoire. He said that UNOCI had tried to do its part in the last 12 months by organising sensitisation sessions and seminars on human rights, setting up human rights clubs in schools all over the country and using theatre to explain human rights violations. The roundtable was organized by the human rights NGO, Ligue Ivoirienne des droits de l'homme (LIDHO).

Redeployment of administration

Newly redeployed civil servants in the Bafing region in the north of Cote d'Ivoire are facing difficulties resettling in certain villages because due to lack of support from local leaders and the population. The villager chiefs and the population have generally refused to facilitate the civil servants search for accommodation. The representative of the National Committee for the Redeployment of the Administration (CNPRA) in the northern city of Touba, has told UNOCI that there is an urgent need to sensitise people on the redeployment of civil servants.

Security

Two pregnant women were raped by bandits who ambushed a public transport vehicle carrying 22 passengers, between Goenie Zibao, 11 km north east of Bangolo (west) and Seba, 7 km north east of Bangolo on 7 December 2008. The bandits forced the passengers into the forest before stealing their money and personal belongings. On the same day, another public transport vehicle was ambushed by armed roadside robbers at Petit Pin, 9 km east of Bangolo. UNPOL and the Bangolo Mixed Brigade are investigating both incidents.

Humanitarian

Peacekeepers from the Senegalese battalion (SENBATT) in the coastal city of San Pedro on 7 December 2008 helped rescue a large number of people who were trapped in rubble after a wall of a coffee and cocoa warehouse collapsed causing panic. A total of 14 people were seriously injured and one of the later died in hospital.