Highlights

-SRSG urges international community to increase support for peace process;
-Ivorian President addresses high-level meeting at the UN;
-UNOCI, NGOs prepare campaign targeting violence against women;
-Mass prison break reported in Bouaké

SRSG urges more support for peace process

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d'Ivoire, Mr Y. J. Choi, today urged the international community to provide increased financial and technical support for efforts to accelerate the resolution of the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire. He made the call following the signing of a convention between the Ivorian state and Sagem-Securités, the technical operator contracted to carry out the identification operation here. The convention was signed by Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and Sagem Director General Jean-Paul Jayvinski.

Politics

Speaking yesterday at a High-level meeting on the relations between the UN and regional organisations, President Laurent Gbagbo said a presidential election would be held in Côte d'Ivoire on 30 November 2008 and that the various operations envisaged in the Ouagadougou Political Agreement were progressing normally. He stated that an electoral timetable had been adopted by the Cabinet on 14 April, while the various actors involved in the electoral process, such as the Independent Electoral Commission, the National Institute of Statistics and the French private operator, Sagem, were ready to work. The crisis in Côte d'Ivoire is coming to an end, Gbagbo said. He also called for a reform of the UN, including its role in conflict prevention and resolution, by giving real competencies to regional organizations, which, he said, are better adapted to the resolution of local conflicts. The UN would be more pertinent and effective if it focuses on transversal issues such as human rights, the environment, pandemics such as HIV and malaria, and the fight against poverty, according to the Ivorian president.

Public Information

Representatives of various UNOCI divisions, including Rule of Law, Human Rights, Public Information (PIO), Gender and UNPOL, along with Ivorian NGOs met this afternoon to prepare an awareness, sensitization and advocacy campaign targeting violence against women. The campaign comes against the background of a spate of attacks, including mass rape, directed against women in parts of Côte d'Ivoire. Participants see these attacks as running counter to, and jeopardizing, the Ivorian peace process.

Security

A man described as one of the biggest bandits in Korhogo was killed yesterday. The circumstances surrounding his death are still under investigation.

Two Armed Forces of the Forces Nouvelles (FAFN) soldiers beat up women (one of whom was pregnant) whom they had asked in vain for alcoholic beverages. The soldiers also beat passers-by who tried to intervene.

About 150 prisoners were reported to have escaped from Bouake Prison yesterday.


Human rights

A UNOCI Quick Impact Project entailing a sensitization campaign against genital mutilation was officially launched on Thursday in Bouake. The campaign, which will be carried out in seven locations in the Bandama Valley region, will end on 21 April 2008.