OCHA Situation Report No. 4
Cote d'Ivoire
13 May 2005


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

The situation in the Northern zone is calm. Also In the western town of
Duekoue following the ethnic fighting that occurred between 29 April and
2 May, the situation has calmed down. Attention is now focused on
negotiations between FANCI and FAFN, supposedly resuming on Froday, 13
May, with a public announcement on the DDR agenda. The third round of
the polio NIDs will start on Friday, 13th May 2005. This constitutes the
last round to stop the circulation of wild polio virus. WHO recruited,
for this third round, five international experts from Congo, DRC,
Zimbabwe, and Central African Republic. These experts will be deployed
all over the country with their local counterparts and the NGO's to give
support for the implementation of these NIDs.

On 10 May, Nine (9) countries of the west African sub-region (Benin,
Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Togo and Cote
d'Ivoire) are meeting, in the Abidjan Ibis-Hotel, on a multilateral
agreement on child trafficking. Experts of labor, justice or family
ministries represent these countries. At the end of these three
days-workshop, experts will have to validate the new draft of the
multilateral agreement project. The opening ceremony of this workshop
was presided by Jeanne Peuhmond, the Minister of Family, Women and
Children of CDI. Felix Ackeboh and Michel Gregoire, respectively,
represented UNICEF and ILO. The following countries (Bissau Guinea,
Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone), did not attend the
workshop but do form part of this agreement.

Education is still an issue of concern in the north of CDI. A seminar is
scheduled from 12th-14th of May 2005 in Korhogo, for the committees of
school safeguard in the Forces Nouvelles controlled zone to analyze the
problems and sketches solutions. The committees of school safeguard were
created at the end of 2004 with the absence of an official school
administration, to deal with the education issues and to avoid children
from hanging around.

Following the water and sanitation mission of Unicef in the north from
5-7 may 2005.The water and sanitation sectorial working group met on
10-11 may 2005 to think about a program of the rehabilitation of water
pumps, to be submitted to Unicef at the end of month. Members of this
sectorial working group divided the northern region by zones of
intervention. Each member of the working group is in charge of a
specific zone. He is responsible of the identification and assessment of
the pumps out of order or water wells that need to be desinfected.

Care International giving a training session in project designing for
his partners implicated in HIV/AIDS areas. This training with about
twenty participants started on Monday 9 may and will end on Friday 13
may 2005.

The Red Cross of Korhogo celebrated World Day of the Red Cross and Red
Crescent on 11 May with the participation of the humanitarian community
and the local authorities. A conference on the theme "To protect human
dignity" was delivered. Vulnerable children affected by malnutrition in
the nutritional recuperation center, received clothes from the Red
Cross.

Prime Minister Seydou Elimane Diarra, and the Government of National
Reconciliation committed themselves on 10 May to get the HIV/AIDS
disease under control by the installation of the inter-ministerial
committee to combat HIV/AIDS. Prime Minister Seydou Elimane Diarra
declared to give his full support to this committee. Marthe Agoh,
Vice-president of the Parliament, reiterated this commitment.

Maurice Bandaman, the president of the board of RTI (Ivorian Radio and
Television Broadcasting Corporation) was reinstalled on 10 May in the
presence of Issa Diakite, Minister of Communication ad interim. This
reinstallation of the President of the board is in line with the
Pretoria agreement signed the 6th April 2005. The Young Patriots
occupied RTI, a public service media during the launch of the =AB Restore
Dignity =BB operation by the FANCI (Ivorian National Armed Forces). The
former management team was dismissed and replaced by a new one led by
the former Minister of Justice Oulai Siene. Issa Diakite, Minister of
Communication ad interim said that the RTI will be airing all over the
country and will be a peacekeeping and harmony mass media.

President Gbagbo granted an audience on 10 May to the management team of
both safe water distribution company (SODECI) and the power supply
company (CIE) in presence of the Principal Deputy Special
Representative, Alan Doss and Aboulaye Mar Dieye, the Resident
Representative of UNDP. The management team of both companies clearly
stated that the conditions of success of safe water redistribution and
power supply in the Forces Nouvelles controlled-zone is security, free
movement of the workers and effective recovery of electricity and safe
water bill. The management team of both companies expressed concerns
about the rehabilitation and the extension of water facilities in
Abidjan and its surroundings.

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