United Nations officials has called on Côte d’Ivoire’s leaders to set a timetable as soon as possible for much-delayed presidential elections so that the vote can take place in the divided West African country in the latter half of this year. The number of identified voters has passed the 4.6-million mark and the operation should be completed by spring if the current trend continues, the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) said in a news release.

cc. Journalist Venance Konan delves into the Côte d’Ivoire impasse and reveals that the interminable delays in setting a date for the elections are due to the machinations of political elites who continue to benefit from the status quo. While various protagonists on the political stage drag their feet, ordinary citizens continue to suffer grinding poverty and the imminent threat of renewed violence. Konan calls on Côte d’Ivoire’s civil society and the international community as a whole to act for the sake of the Ivorian people.

Sylvie Kouamé*, 17, told IRIN she had sex for money with a man she met on line in her home country Côte d’Ivoire. She needed a few dollars for school fees. She no longer needs money for school. Five months pregnant, Kouamé dropped out a few years short of graduating secondary school.

Despite some problems, voter identification and registration in Côte d’Ivoire have been positive overall in the run-up to elections, a key element in resolving a political crisis that in 2002 divided the West African country into a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south, a top United Nations official has said.

Thanks to some progress in the implementation of the Ouagadougou Peace Accord, internally displaced people (IDPs) in Côte d’Ivoire have continued to return home throughout the second half of 2008. Of over 700,000 counted in just five government-controlled regions in 2005, some 70,000 had returned by the end of September 2008 in the western regions of Moyen Cavally and Dix-Huit Montagnes.

Côte d’Ivoire’s electoral commission on 23 October suspended for two days the long-delayed voter registration operation, throwing into deeper uncertainty the timing of a presidential poll seen as indispensable to restoring stability. The electoral commission said registration was being suspended for technical reasons, but the operation has been fraught with problems.

Two men have been sentenced to 25 years by a court in Abidjan following 500 tons of toxic waste which was dumped by a ship Probo Koala in 2006. It was chartered by a Holland oil trader Trafigura. The company said management and government reached a 150 million euro out of court settlement.

Côte d’Ivoire’s fragile political stability and security situation are at risk as the country struggles to make progress in reaching benchmarks agreed to in the peace pact signed last year, according to a group of United Nations experts in a report just made public. In its final report, the Côte d’Ivoire Group of Experts warns the Security Council that security threats persist in the West African country because programmes to disarm combatants and dismantle militia remain largely incomplete.

Ivory Coast's long-awaited presidential election, which will cement peace between President Laurent Gbagbo and rebels, is "technically impossible" this year and will be held in 2009, an electoral official said on Friday. The vote in the world's No. 1 cocoa producer, which had already been delayed several times since 2005 by political conflict and sporadic violence, was scheduled for Nov. 30.

Côte d’Ivoire still faces formidable obstacles before it can achieve true national reconciliation and begin the path to recovery, a United Nations report says today just weeks before the West African country is slated to conduct much-delayed presidential elections.

A United Nations human rights expert has held talks in Côte d’Ivoire with senior officials from the UN peacekeeping mission in the West African country at the start of a week-long visit to investigate the illegal movement and dumping of toxic wastes.

Child abduction, which is already a serious problem in Cote d’Ivoire, may worsen in the run up to presidential elections later this year as political hopefuls using traditional myths of human sacrifice to improve their electoral chances will fuel an already significant market for stolen children, according to the Ivorian police.

The government of Côte d’Ivoire should take immediate steps to end impunity for members of a pro-government student group responsible for numerous acts of violent, criminal behavior, Human Rights Watch has said in a report. Since 2002, when a failed coup attempt plunged the country into a political and military crisis, the Student Federation of Côte d’Ivoire (Fédération Estudiantine et Scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire, FESCI), alternatively described as a “pro-government militia” and a “mafia,” has been responsible for politically and criminally motivated violence.

Almost half a million Ivorians have received new birth certificates, the first step in a process to enable them to vote in national general elections scheduled for later this year, the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) has reported.

Following the March 2007 Ouagadougou Peace Accord, some of Côte d’Ivoire’s internally displaced people (IDPs) have started to return home, either spontaneously or in a few cases assisted by the government and humanitarian agencies. Some tens of thousands of IDPs are believed to have returned, from over 700,000 counted in just five government controlled regions in 2005.

Ivory Coast has slashed the taxes on imported staple foods after two days of violent protests in the commercial capital Abidjan over rising prices. At least one man died in the demonstrations during which police fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protesters blocking roads with burning tyres and barricades.

Two towns in western Cote d’Ivoire have been shut off by two days of riots by disgruntled Ivorian soldiers. Troops started rampaging through the town of Duékoué, 400 km north west of the commercial capital Abidjan, on the morning of 24 March, protesting the murder of a low-ranking soldier by robbers the night before, Commandant Vazoumana, a gendarme in Duékoué told IRIN.

The committee that monitors last year’s political agreement in Côte d'Ivoire has accepted conditions for certifying the validity of upcoming elections which had been proposed by the United Nations’ top envoy to the divided West African country. The so-called five-criteria framework, proposed by Y. J. Choi, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for the country, was approved yesterday by the follow-up committee in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, and the site where the agreement was signed.

Radio France International (RFI), on January 31, 2008 again had its permission to broadcast on FM suspended by Cote d'Ivoire'sNational Council for Broadcast Communication (CNCA). Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent reported that the Ivorian regulator body this time accused the management of the French public broadcaster of failing to honour its financial obligation to the CNCA.

The Security Council has renewed the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and French forces supporting it until 30 July so the world body can support the holding of free, open, fair and transparent elections. In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council said it will review by 30 July the mandates of UNOCI and the French force, as well as UN troop levels, “in light of the progress achieved in the implementation of the key steps of the peace process.”