United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned forces loyal to the outgoing Côte d’Ivoire president, who has refused to step down despite his election defeat, that they will be held accountable for their criminal attacks on UN peacekeepers in the country.Ban voiced deep concern that regular and irregular forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo have begun to attack and burn vehicles belonging to the nearly 9,000-strong UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), which has been supporting efforts over the past seven years to reunify a country split by civil war in 2002 into a Government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.
At the same time, the UN humanitarian chief stressed that the lives and livelihoods of many thousands of Ivorians were threatened by the deteriorating crisis sparked by Gbagbo’s refusal to leave office despite opposition leader Alassane Ouattara’s UN-certified and internationally-recognized victory in November’s run-off election.
"Beginning this morning, there have been a total of six incidents involving such attacks in Abidjan [the commercial capital] where a UNOCI military vehicle was burned. A doctor and the driver of an ambulance targeted in one of the attacks were injured," Ban said in a statement.
UNOCI noted that two vehicles were burned and three others damaged.
Ban also strongly condemned Wednesday's armed attack on a UN convoy in the Abobo quarter of Abidjan, as well as the continuing use of the State broadcasting corporation by Gbagbo loyalists to instigate violence against the UN mission, including false allegations that peacekeepers are extending active support to forces supporting Ouattara.
In the light of Gbagbo’s refusal to vacate the presidential palace despite the recognition of Ouattara’s election victory by the UN, the African Union (AU) and many countries, the new president and his Government are currently based in the Golf Hotel under UNOCI protection.
"The Secretary-General once again warns those responsible for organizing and carrying out such attacks that they will be held accountable," Ban added, stressing that both attacks on peacekeepers and destruction of assets deployed for purposes of protecting civilians constitute crimes under international law.
Over 23,500 Ivorians have already fled to neighboring countries over the past five weeks, the vast majority to Liberia, amid growing fear and insecurity, while 16,000 others are internally displaced in the west of the country, the majority of them pregnant and nursing women, and school-age children.
"A peaceful and rapid solution to the crisis is critical for the people of Côte d’Ivoire and for the region as a whole," said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos.
UNOCI Human Rights Division Director Simon Munzu noted that there are similarities between current phenomena in Côte d’Ivoire, such as political intransigence and highly partisan media, and those that led to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which 800,000 people are estimated to have been murdered. However, he underlined that the country was not on the brink of genocide, but it could possibly develop into it.
November’s run-off election was meant to be the culminating point of the agreement that ended the 2002 civil war but the situation has deteriorated seriously since Gbagbo’s rejection of the result. He has demanded UNOCI’s departure, which the UN has rejected, and Ban is expected to ask the Security Council for between 1,000 and 2,000 additional forces for the mission.
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