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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D IVOIRE: UN blue helmets preparing to return to west after January riots
ABIDJAN, 9 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - The commander of the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire said Thursday that peacekeeping troops were preparing to return to the volatile government-run western region.
General Abdoulaye Fall told a news conference that UN troops currently deployed elsewhere in the war-divided nation were to be transferred to military bases in the west. He did not elaborate or mention a date.
"Preparation is continuing for the redeployment of the positions previously occupied by the UN," Fall said.
In January, hundreds of Bangladeshi peacekeepers abandoned UN compounds in the western towns of Guiglo and Duekoue as they came under attack from angry youths protesting the UN’s role in efforts to end more than three years of conflict in Cote d’Ivoire.
UN and UN agency facilities in the area were subsequently ransacked and looted in what UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called "orchestrated violence". Annan has said he was sending a bill for the damage, estimated at US $ 3.5 million, to President Laurent Gbagbo.
Many of the 400 UN non-essential staff evacuated to the Gambia and Senegal following the violence, have yet to return to Cote d'Ivoire.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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