Ivory Coast peacekeepers given one-month renewal
Source: Reuters
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Security Council extended the mandate of U.N. and French peacekeepers in Ivory Coast for just a month on Friday after the United States said it needed more time to get congressional approval for a longer period. A resolution approved unanimously by the 15-nation council authorized the two peacekeeping forces to remain on the job in the world's top cocoa grower until just Jan. 10, 2007. Without council action, the mandate would have expired at the end of the day. The previous mandate renewal was for 11 months. Friday's resolution expressed the council's "serious concern" over the deteriorating situation in the volatile West African nation, which was split into a government-run south and a rebel-held north by a 2002-2003 civil war. It also reaffirmed the council's support for Ivory Coast's sovereignty and territorial integrity. A separate unanimous council resolution extended for six more months the work of outside experts monitoring the effectiveness of a U.N. arms embargo on Ivory Coast. Despite a string of U.N.-backed peace deals, the country has made little progress toward reuniting or holding elections as the government and rebel sides bicker over their implementation. Around 11,000 U.N. and French peacekeepers police the buffer zone that cuts the country in half. Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, whose constitutional five-year term expired in October 2005, vowed on Friday in Abidjan to do everything possible to ensure long-delayed presidential elections polls take place next year.
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