UN feeding agency suspends flights in western Côte d’Ivoire after shooting

The United Nations emergency feeding agency has suspended flights to a western region of Côte d’Ivoire until further notice after one of its planes was met with shots fired into the air and threats and slogans shouted at the crew by the rebel Forces Nouvelles, the UN mission in the war-wracked country reported today.

The UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) warned that the incident, which occurred yesterday when the World Food Programme (WFP) plane landed at Man, risked compromising its humanitarian mission at the expense of the local population.

“ONUCI strongly condemns all attacks on the rights of UN personnel and reminds Forces Nouvelles of their duty to respect such staff in the zone under their control as well as safeguard their physical integrity,” the mission said in a statement.

The mission, set up in April to help implement peace accords between the Government and rebels signed in January 2003, has also reiterated its “profound concern” at credible reports of rape and other violence towards women as well as an increase in general human rights abuses in the West African country.

In a communiqué yesterday marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, ONUCI noted that since the latest violence erupted at the beginning of the month, summary executions, extrajudicial killings, physical attacks and abductions have been committed in both government- and rebel-held areas.

Meanwhile the number of Ivorians who have fled the recent violence into neighbouring Liberia, itself recovering from 14 years of civil war and violent anarchy, is now estimated to have reached 19,000, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

The latest crisis began on 4 November when Government forces bombed rebel positions in the in the UN-patrolled Zone of Confidence (ZOC) separating the combatants. Two days later Government forces bombed French peacekeepers there, killing nine, and French troops destroyed the Government's air force in retaliation, leading to widespread rioting, looting and harassment of foreigners.

Apart from the Ivorian refugees in Liberia, thousands of expatriates, mainly French, were airlifted out of Abidjan, the country’s largest city.