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| Africa Subsaharan | |
| France asks citizens to exit Ivory Coast | |
| 2011-01-01 | |
| [Iran Press TV] La Belle France has once again asked its citizens to leave Ivory Coast as tensions mount over the outcome of the recent presidential run-off election in the West African country. "Although foreign nationals are not at present threatened, the French authorities renew their advice... to all French who can, in particular families with children, to temporarily leave Ivory Coast," the French foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday. On December 22, La Belle France urged its citizens to leave Ivory Coast after UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon warned that the former French colony is on the brink of civil war following the disputed November 28 run-off presidential election. Around 14,000 French citizens live in Ivory Coast. "We estimate at around 2,000 the number of French who have left the country," French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said on Friday. Friday's renewed advice comes as supporters of the incumbent Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo have vowed to seize Alassane Ouattara's headquarters on New Year Day in an uprising. Ouattara has taken refuge in Abidjan's Golf Hotel since November's vote. The hotel is currently protected by an 800-strong force of UN peacekeepers. More than 16,000 Ivorians have decamped to neighboring Liberia following the post-electoral instability. The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society expects the number to hit 30,000, according to Rooters. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, in a Saturday statement said that the growing number of Ivorian refugees has had a major impact on several Liberian communities. "Our staffs report that host community houses are full and congested," the UNHCR said. "There are homes where 7 to 20 family members share a single room." Gbagbo has ignored calls from countries on the African continent and elsewhere worldwide to concede defeat to Alassane Ouattara. "Between December 16 and 21, human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... officers have substantiated allegations of 173 killings, 90 instances of torture and ill treatment, 471 arrests and detentions and 24 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances," UN's Deputy Human Rights Chief Kang Kyung-wha said on Thursday. The European Union on December 13 slapped a round of sanctions against Gbagbo and his political aides to intensify his diplomatic isolation. Sanctions including visa bans and asset freezes "will particularly target those leading figures who have refused to place themselves under the authority of the democratically elected president," EU ministers said in a statement. "We call for an immediate and peaceful handover of power," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told news hounds after the ministerial meeting. "We decided to adopt, without delay, restrictive measures against those who are obstructing peace and reconciliation." "I hope today's decision will persuade the incumbent government to respond before we reach that stage," she added. On December 2, Ivory Coast's electoral commission announced that opposition candidate Ouattara had won the nation's long-awaited presidential election with 54 percent of the vote. However, The infamous However... the Constitutional Council immediately contested the result, citing the electoral commission's failure to declare the vote result by Wednesday's deadline. The council overruled earlier provisional poll results a day later and declared Gbagbo as the winner of the country's presidential run-off election. On December 9, the 53-nation African Union (AU) decided to suspend the membership of Ivory Coast over the disputed presidential election. The AU said the suspension would remain until president-elect Ouattara takes power. The disputed presidential election has raised the risk of a long power struggle in the country. The world's top cocoa-producing nation is still reeling from the 2002-2003 civil war, which split the West African country in two.
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| Posted by:Fred |