The U.N. Security Council should consider deploying unmanned surveillance aircraft in Ivory Coast to aid the world body’s peacekeeping mission in the west African country, Ivory Coast’s U.N. envoy said on Tuesday, echoing a recommendation by the U.N. chief.
Ivory Coast U.N. Ambassador Youssoufou Bamba told the 15-member council that surveillance UAS should be deployed to offset any planned cuts to the peacekeeping force in the world’s biggest cocoa producer.
The United Nations will soon deploy such aircraft for the first time in the Democratic Republic of Congo to help the peacekeeping mission in that central African country monitor its porous and mountainous eastern borders with Rwanda and Uganda.
In a report to the Security Council, Ban said that UAS should also be considered for Ivory Coast to “enhance situational awareness and monitoring ability, with a view to strengthening the ability of UNOCI to efficiently and effectively carry out its mandate, including the protection of civilians.”
The peacekeeping force, known as UNOCI, is due to reduce its size by one battalion to 8,837 military personnel by July 31, when the council is due to renew its annual mandate. Ban has also proposed cutting a further two battalions by mid-2015.
Bamba told the council that any adjustments to the size of the force would need to be offset “by the deployment of qualitative resources, such as surveillance UAS for the border zone between Ivory Coast and Liberia.”
Western Ivory Coast has been the target of deadly raids blamed on supporters of former presidentLaurent Gbagbo, who was ousted in a civil war in 2011 after he rejected the election victory of rival Alassane Ouattara.
Source: Yahoo News