Highlights
- UNOCI's OIC leads a delegation to the Flame of Peace ceremony in Bouaké
- Mixed Brigades in Bonoufla and N'gattadolikro now fully operational
- UNOCI employs locals to work on DDR site after protests in Kani
Flame of Peace ceremony
UNOCI's Officer in Charge, Abou Moussa and a delegation of senior officials today attended the Flame of Peace ceremony in Bouaké which symbolized the start of the disarmament process and the reunification of Cote d'Ivoire. The ceremony was attended by Presidents Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, Faure Gnassingbé of Togo, Amadou Toumani Touré of Mali, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa,Yayi Boni of Benin and Joa Bernardo Vieira of Guinea Bissau. In attendance were also representatives from Niger, Ghana and Senegal and Angola. UNOCI troops and their Licorne counterparts provided a strong backup to the security arrangements put in place by the two Ivorian forces . In addition, UNOCI also provided air surveillance on the control tower of Bouaké airport and made available a quick reaction force to all sites involved in the ceremony.
Mixed Brigade
The new Mixed Brigade in Bonoufla was inaugurated on Sunday, 29th July 2007. The unit comprises ten soldiers from the Forces Nouvelles and ten from the Defence and Security Forces of Cote d'Ivoire (FDSCI).
The Mixed Brigade at N'gattadolikro is now fully operational with the arrival on 27th July 2007 of the ten gendarmes from the Forces Nouvelles.
Redeployment of Administration
The new Prefect of Danané has been officially installed. The ceremony held on 29th July 2007 was presided over by the Minister of National Education and his colleague in charge of Public Works.
Security
A Pakistani soldier was slightly injured when four local boys threw bottles, stones and other missiles into the PAKBATT Camp in Duékoué on 27th July 2007. The boys started throwing the missiles after they were prevented from entering the camp. The incident is being investigated.
DDR site
A joint BANBATT and UNPOL patrol went to the Kani DDR site on 28 July to liaise with FAFN authorities in relation to a dispute about the employment of workers from Daloa. The patrol first met Captain Atif Gulzar Rana who is in charge of the Pakistani engineering team working on the site. He informed the patrol that seven skilled workers from Daloa were hired by the engineering section to work on the site but the local authorities asked them to go back to Daloa because the people in Kani should be employed for the job. Later the patrol went to the Gendarmerie Brigade and met the second in charge of security, Guindo Amadou, who confirmed the information. He said that the local population had stopped the skilled workers, as they protested that they too could have done the same job. Mr Guindo said that the population had the support of the Mayor and the former Gendarmerie Brigade Commander. He confirmed that only one person was allowed to stay there due to his skills and all others have been sent back. The patrol later met UNOCI's Engineering staff in Séguéla who said that 20 unskilled workers from Kani had already been hired and that they were waiting for further instructions with regard to the hiring of skilled workers from town. Work on the site has not been affected.