The UN Security Council extended its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast on Monday, hours after the UN’s top envoy in the West African country said armed men had been threatening staff in their homes.
Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat in last month’s election and his demand that peacekeepers leave have raised fears that UN personnel and other foreigners could be targeted in violence.
“Armed men have been coming to the personal houses of United Nations employees, asking them to leave and searching their houses under the pretext of looking for arms,” UN Special Representative Choi Young-jin said at a news conference in Abidjan.
However, a spokesman for Gbagbo in Paris on Monday said he doubted soldiers or those supporting Gbagbo would be involved in such tactics.
Gbagbo has ordered the UN peacekeeping force to leave Ivory Coast, claiming it is biased in favor of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.
The UN and the international community recognize Ouattara as the victor of last month’s presidential runoff vote.
The UN has refused to leave, and the Security Council resolution adopted unanimously on Monday extended the mandate of the 8,650-strong force until June 30 next year.
“Members of the Security Council warn all stakeholders that they will be held accountable for attacks against civilians and peacekeepers and will be brought to justice in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law,” said a statement read at the end of the meeting by US Ambassador Susan Rice, the current council president.
The council also extended the temporary deployment of up to 500 additional personnel until March 31, and extends by four weeks the temporary redeployment of three infantry companies and an aviation unit from Liberia to Ivory Coast.
The UN has nearly 10,000 troops in Ivory Coast, and France more than 900. About 800 UN peacekeepers are protecting the luxury hotel from which Ouattara is trying to govern the country. They are in turn encircled by troops loyal to Gbagbo, who has been accused of recruiting Liberian and Angolan mercenaries.
The council resolution stepped up pressure on Gbagbo to concede defeat, and urged all Ivorian parties and stakeholders “to respect the will of the people and the outcome of the election” in view of the recognition of Ouattara by the African Union and the West African regional group ECOWAS.
Meanwhile, the EU said on Monday it would impose an assets freeze and a visa ban on Gbagbo and his wife after a Sunday deadline for him to step down elapsed.
The travel ban will be imposed on Gbagbo, his wife Simone and 17 of his close allies, expected to include top security, ruling party and regular army officials.
“We expect the ban to be adopted by Wednesday and come into effect on Thursday, effective immediately,” Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for the European Commission in Brussels, said on Monday.
Gbagbo’s supporters brushed off the measures as insignificant, noting that Gbagbo rarely travels.
“I don’t think this will advance things. It just shows that those behind them haven’t got much room for maneuver,” Gbagbo aide Pascal Affi N’Guessan said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the