United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire

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Côte d'Ivoire
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The United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire ("UNOCI") is a United Nations peacekeeping mission. The aim of the mission is "to facilitate the implementation by the Ivorian parties of the peace agreement signed by them in January 2003." The two main Ivorian parties here are the Ivorian Government forces who control the south of the country, and the New Forces - who control the north. The UNOCI mission aims to control a "zone of confidence" across the centre of the country separating the two parties.

The peacekeeping mission's official name is ONUCI, which is the French acronym for "Opération des Nations Unies en Côte d'Ivoire".

1 History
2 Incidents
3 Casualties
4 See also
5 References
6 External link

[edit] History

The mission was authorized on February 27, 2004, to take effect from April 2004, initially for a period of one year. The mandate was subsequently extended several times.

On February 2006, following the appeal by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the United Nations Security Council agreed to strengthen the ONUCI forces by sending a battalion from United Nations Mission in Liberia with 800-soldiers to Cote d'Ivoire. ^[1]

As of November, 2006, the mission consists of about 8,000 uniformed soldiers from a total of 41 countries. They were deployed alongside 4,000 French peacekeeping forces.^[2]

In January 2007, the UN Security Council extended the mission until 30 June 2007.^[3]

[edit] Incidents

In January 2006, supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo attacked the base of the United Nations peacekeepers after the Ivorian Popular Front withdraws from the Ivorian Civil War peace process. About 1,000 protesters invaded the UN base at Guiglo ^[4]

[edit] Casualties

A total of 25 UN personnel have died during UNOCI, including 21 UN peacekeepers in 2005-2006 (this may vary because UNOCI is still an ongoing peacekeeping mission).