UN Security Council to deploy fresh troops in Ivory Coast

Jan 18, 2011, 23:14 GMT

New York - The UN Security Council planned to send an additional 2,000 peacekeepers to Ivory Coast, where a UN representative said forces loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo have become 'very, very hostile' to the UN.

Council president, Ambassador Ivan Barbalic of Bosnia, said a draft resolution authorizing the additional deployment will be adopted on Wednesday as council members have all agreed about it.

'There is no disagreement, it will be adopted tomorrow (Wednesday),' he said.

The UN special envoy for Ivory Coast, Choi Youngjin, said through a video teleconference from the country's capital Abidjan that he would welcome the new troops to be added to the 9,000-strong UN mission there known as UNOCI.

Choi acknowledged the standoff between the UN and Gbagbo in the past two months after he certified on the UN's behalf that opposition leader Alassane Ouattara had won the November 28 presidential election. Gbagbo refused to relinquish power to Ouattara and instead has mounted a campaign of intimidation against UN peacekeepers, including a blockade of the UN headquarters at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan.

'Something must be done,' Choi said, sounding an appeal to African leaders to exert more pressure on Gbagbo to step down.

A draft resolution readied for adoption on Wednesday would deploy the additional 2,000 military personnel until June. The current 9,000 UN peacekeepers and police in Ivory Coast include troops drawn from the UN mission in Liberia and they would stay in the country until the arrival of the new troops.

UNOCI was deployed in 2002 to monitor a ceasefire agreement by Ivory Coast's parties that ended their civil war. But the agreement split the country into a government-held south and rebel-led north and the UN had hoped that the presidential election in November would reunite the country under one leader.

The draft called on the parties to scrupulously abide by obligations to respect the safety and ensure freedom of movement of UNOCI and French troops which support the UN efforts in Ivory Coast.

It called on Gbagbo and his supporters to end media attacks, including false information propaganda, and incitement of hatred and violence against the UN and its peacekeepers.