Côte d’Ivoire: UN mission’s military chief meets Government, rebel leaders

The military head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) met this week with Government and former rebel army leaders to discuss aspects of the implementation of the Ouagadougou political accord between rival political groups in the divided West African nation.

Held at UNOCI headquarters in Abidjan, participants at the meeting, including UNOCI Force Commander General Fernand Marcel Amoussou, discussed the structure and work of the Integrated Command Centre, created under the Ouagadougou pact to unify the Ivorian military parties.

Participants also conferred on how the Centre can continue to support the ongoing pre-election identification scheme.

The Ouagadougou agreement, reached in March this year, sets out a series of measures to deal with the political divide between the Government, which controls the south of the country, and Forces Nouvelles, which has held the north since 2002.

UNOCI was set up in 2004 with a mandate to monitor the cessation of hostilities between the warring parties and, among other goals, to contribute “to the security of the operations of identification of the population and registration of voters” and support “the organization of open, free, fair and transparent elections.”

As of the end of August, the mission had a strength of nearly 9,200 uniformed personnel, including almost 8,000 troops and over 1,130 police.