A War Ends in Ivory Coast but Peace, Order and Unity Are Flickering Dreams
10 June NY Times - A War Ends in Ivory Coast but Peace, Order and Unity Are Flickering Dreams by Lydia Polgreen.
Quote:
... Under the terms of a peace agreement signed in March, the commander of the rebel army has become the prime minister, sharing power with his old nemesis, President Laurent Gbagbo. Militias loyal to the government have thrown weapons by the hundreds upon pyres in a symbolic disarmament. United Nations peacekeepers have dismantled their checkpoint in the buffer zone between Abidjan, a southern city that is the seat of the government, and this northern capital of the rebellion...
The agreement is the latest in a string of pacts, each of which has previously stumbled at the same fault lines that have thwarted resolution of this conflict — how to disarm the militias on both sides and how to decide, in a country full of migrants and their descendants, who is entitled to Ivorian citizenship?
The rebels have argued that people born here should be considered citizens even if their grandparents or parents migrated, while the government has resisted weakening strict citizenship laws and documentation requirements that previous generations also be Ivorian...
ECOWAS threatens military intervention
Ecowas bloc threatens Ivory Coast's Gbagbo with force
BBC News
24 December 2010 Last updated at 16:03
Quote:
The West African regional bloc Ecowas has told incumbent Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo to stand down or expect to face "legitimate force".
The statement came at the end of emergency talks on the crisis sparked by a disputed election last month.
The 15-member bloc and other international bodies have recognised his rival Alassane Ouattara as winner.
Ivory Coast - low profile crisis?
Ron,
You were right to start a thread on the Ivory Coast. I have searched and whilst the term Ivory Coast does appear, SWC has not watched or commented upon the situation there.
I would suggest a couple of reasons for this: we rarely consider UN peacekeeping, let alone other regional peacekeeping (Somalia is an exception); it is in a Francophone country and above all it is in Africa. Would that change here if AFRICOM was to have a role?
Incidentally I would expect France to be the main country wondering WTF, IIRC there was a substantial expatriate community there.
BBC News latest report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12079552
Armed and ready for Ivorian intervention?
A BBC report on the viability of an armed African intervention:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12083228
Within is a local analyst's viewpoint:
Quote:
Key countries that would have to contribute may not have the political stomach and the temerity...Nigeria is heading towards elections and may not want to put in troops on the ground for that a long time; Ghana has elections in 2012 and Senegal has its own problems with dynastic succession.
Elsewhere I posted an IISS commentary on the AU's standby forces and here is the link:http://www.iiss.org/publications/str...ll-on-standby/
UNOCI: who are they and where are they?
I know where the Ivory Coast is, but until a moment ago had little idea what exactly the UN deployment means. Taken with some reservations, as they are UN official documents.
First a map of the military and police deployments:http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/dpko/unoci.pdf and the international composition, alas without details:http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/mi...ci/facts.shtml
Most of those listed under military personnel are military observers, not formed units.
Note in Abidjan, the current focus, the UN military come from Bangladesh, Jordan and Togo. IIRC only the Jordanians have a reputation for steadfastness - a legacy of Bosnia. Stan no doubt will remind us what the Bangladeshi unit did in Rwanda.
The French have 800 soldiers in country now, from one press report and I'd expect them to be in the capital too - anxiously watching over the remaining French nationals (maybe 12k).