UNMIL, please don't leave Liberia

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf pleaded with U.S. President George Bush not to further dismantle the UN peace keeping force in her country.

From AllAfrica.com

Recently, UNMIL announced it will be maintaining more than 11,000 troops in Liberia after the troops draw-down in September 2008.

Additionally, the UN Mission in Liberia pointed out that the drawdown plan had already commenced in Grand Cape Mount County since October 2007 with the departure of the Namibian battalion.

The release noted that the remaining troops numbering more than 11,000 will stay in Liberia to continue their duties until otherwise mandated by the Security Council.

Sanction busting in Cote d'Ivoire?

As the UN Security Council voted Monday to continue its sanctions on Cote d’Ivoire, the BBC reports that those sanctions continue to be broken.

In a unanimous vote, the council prolonged the 12-month blockade against guns and arms entering the country and diamonds leaving. Council members also renewed travel bans even though Cote d’Ivoire’s president called for those bans to be lifted against three people from the southern part of the country: Charles Goudé Ble, Eugène Djue and Kouakou Fofie.

The BBC reports that a leaked United Nations Group of Experts monitoring report claims the rebels of northern Cote d’Ivoire continue to smuggle diamonds through Mali.

The diamonds from Cote d’Ivoire end up in Sikasso, a Malian town about 100 km north of the Ivorian border, where allegedly they are shipped to Bamako.

"Often you find diamonds in transit here, which have come from Seguela, passing through to Mali's capital. When they get to Bamako there are certain businessmen there who send them to western countries," an unidentified man told BBC.

However, the reporter could not find any evidence of diamond smuggling. Nor had any of the people she spoke to seen a diamond.

In Sept. 2005, Global Witness found that northern rebels of Cote d’Ivoire were smuggling diamonds through Mali and Guinea to fund their war effort against the south. This was backed up by a report from the UN Panel of Experts, who pointed out both sides of the conflict were also using cocoa to purchase military equipment. (Here is a story on Global Witness’s work in Cote d’Ivoire.)

The UN Security Council first began its bans on Cote d’Ivoire in 2005. The Council Monday declared they will review the sanctions after all parties have fully implemented the so-called Ouagadougou peace agreement and holding free and fair elections.

Earlier last month, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon worried about the pace of the peace plan.

UN triple shot: Cote d'Ivoire, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau

Cote d’Ivoire: In a recent report, the UN claims Cote d’Ivoire’s military is obstructing inspections regarding the international embargo on arms and related material.

During the investigations, which took place between mid-July and mid-August, the Group “observed a lack of understanding on the part of certain Ivorian political authorities who believed that, with the signing of the Ouagadougou Political Agreement on 4 March 2007, their mission was out of step with the current reconciliation process.”

The Group also heard reports of Malian smuggling rings to ferry illegal diamonds out of the country and potential violations on diamond exports.

Somalia: Increased violence between the Transitional Federal Government and other parties has resulted in “suspicion” toward the humanitarian community, which is impeding relief work and food deliveries.

An estimated 60 uniformed and armed members of the Somalia National Security Service stormed a UN compound October 17 and abducted a member of the World Food Program staff member. So far the captive, Idriss Osman, is reportedly unharmed.

Since then, the WFP has discontinued work in the region where three million people are in need of assistance.

The abduction of Mr. Osman follows the shooting death of three WFP-contracted drivers.

Guinea Bissau: The UN Security Council called for the United Nations to examine how best to support Guinea-Bissau, which has been awash in claims that drug trafficking undermines its peace and stability.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the West African nation has become a transit point for cocaine moving between Latin America and Europe. Even though the government has made at least 50 drug seizures in the past two years, it is a small a portion of drugs moving through the country.

Drug traffickers have leveraged the country’s poverty and political instability, the lingering effects of a brief civil war six years ago, to outmaneuver weak government surveillance with planes and ships to drop-off and pick up drugs.

Another issue remains that drugs confiscated by the government often find a way back to the street through corruption and thievery.