Citing security concerns, UN pulls non-essential staff out of Côte d'Ivoire

6 February – With Côte d'Ivoire reeling from the aftershocks of a five-month
civil war, the United Nations has decided to pull its non-essential staff
out of the country.

Concerned by recent developments in Côte d'Ivoire, the UN Security
Coordinator's Office (UNSECOORD) made the call to pull out UN staff today,
noting the sporadic violent demonstrations, and xenophobic radio broadcasts,
as well as ethnic clashes, which have rocked the country for weeks now.

There are currently some 120 international UN staff in Côte d'Ivoire, "and
we expect a maximum of 80 staff to remain in the country," UN spokesman Fred
Eckhard told the press, adding that specific security clearances will be
needed for any other staff to go into the country.

Mr. Eckhard recalled that earlier in the week, a senior UN official, at the
request of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, briefed the Security Council
privately on Côte d'Ivoire. "In that briefing, he highlighted the
Secretary-General's continuing and strong concern of the danger of a further
deterioration of the situation, building on the existing ethnic, communal
and religious tensions in that country," the spokesman said.

Immediately following that briefing, the Security Council unanimously
adopted a resolution calling on all Ivoirian political forces to fully
implement, without delay, the Linas-Morcoussis Peace Agreement, signed and
adopted last month in France.

The French-brokered accord, which calls upon the government, rebels and
political opposition to share power in a transitional government until
elections in 2005, has sparked a series of violent protests and
demonstrations that have shaken Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's main city. Those
protests and the general climate of insecurity subsequently forced the UN's
refugee agency (UNHCR) to suspend all its operations in the country for
three days in late January.






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