Highlights

-UNOCI Chief meets President of IEC
-DSRSG Charpentier on working visit to Bouna and Bondoukou
-UNOCI staff members robbed at gunpoint, burgled in Bouaké
-SENBATT peacekeepers told to leave Fresco by Sub Prefect

Elections

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Côte d'Ivoire, Y.J. Choi, on Monday discussed the financing of the Ivorian electoral process with the Chair of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Robert Beugré Mambé. Their half-hour meeting at the IEC headquarters in Abidjan was meant to see to what extent the international community can contribute to the process so as to speed it up, Mr Choi said. The two men also discussed UNOCI's role in certifying the upcoming elections. Certification "has to be done not with the aim of questioning the process, but rather to facilitate it so that it can be accepted by everyone," Mr Choi said.

Mission

A delegation led by the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Cote d'Ivoire, Georg Charpentier, visited Bouna, Bondoukou and Korhogo on 2-4 February to discuss the social and humanitarian situation in the region. The people whom the delegation met complained of a lack of basic amenities such as potable water, electricity, good roads and medical care. The delegation, which is to return to Abidjan today, also had a working session with representatives of the local authorities, partners and humanitarian organisations as well as a briefing with UNOCI staff on the ground.

Security

Two unidentified armed men pretending to be UNOCI electoral officers on 2 February 2008 forced their way into a house occupied by the Electoral Coordinator for the central town of Daoukro, threatened her at gunpoint and then escaped with money and personal effects. The assailants wore jackets usually worn by UNOCI electoral staff. On the same night, two armed men in the Gonfreville neighbourhood of Bouaké stopped a national staff member of ONUCI at gunpoint, hit him with their gun butts and stole his motorcycle and mobile phone. Then, on Sunday 3 February, the home of yet another UNOCI national staff member in Bouaké was burgled in his absence.

A SENBATT patrol which went to the southwestern town of Fresco on 31 January 2008 to establish a temporary base at Sakariko was told by the Sub Prefect to leave the area. At a meeting with the patrol commander and the Chief of the local Gendarmerie, the Sub Prefect said that his Prefect, who is based in Divo, and he were not happy with UNOCI's presence in the area. He allowed the patrol to stay one night but warned that it had to leave as young people were preparing to demonstrate against it. The patrol observed that although people were not openly hostile, they were unhappy over the peacekeepers' presence. The Sub Prefect said that next time, UNOCI should inform him a week in advance before going to his area. The SENBATT patrol subsequently left the area.

Arms embargo

Arms embargo inspections were successfully conducted on 1 February 2008 by UNOCI Military and UNPOL at Gendarmerie units in the centre-west towns of Oume and Issia, at an airbase of the Defence and Security Forces of Côte d'Ivoire (FDS-CI) in San Pedro (southwest) and at Armed Forces of the Forces Nouvelles (FAFN) camps in Man (west), and Kimbirila near Odienne (northwest).

Humanitarian

The MORBATT medical team evacuated a patient seriously ill with meningitis from Bagohouo to Duékoué (west) on 1 February 2008. The battalion has reported sporadic cases of meningitis among the civilian population in the different parts of Duèkouè and as result has instituted some urgent preventive measures among its soldiers. It has also started an awareness-raising campaign among local people.

A meningitis epidemic which has already claimed the lives of five children is also reported in Soko village in the Zanzan region, in the northeast.

Human Rights

The Regional Human Rights Office in Yamoussoukro held a meeting with 20 human rights NGOs on 30 January 2008 to discuss ways of reinforcing collaboration in the areas of promoting and protecting human rights. The NGOs used the opportunity to present a map of the main human rights violations in the region, including armed attacks, rape, extortion by the FDS-CI, discrimination against internally displaced persons, communal clashes and violence by members of the Ivorian students union, FESCI.

The Regional Human Rights Office in Duékoué met with the president of the NGO Bonne Action on 31 January 2008 to discuss social cohesion regarding the ongoing return of IDPs in the Moyen Cavally region {west). Given the resistance and hostility of some host communities vis-à-vis the returnees, the NGOs requested the Office to conduct awareness-raising campaigns on human rights, culture of peace and reconciliation.