UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations on Tuesday announced the appointment of the new commander of the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) while fighting continued in Abidjan.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that Major General Gnakoudè Béréna will succeed Maj. Gen. Abdul Hafiz of Bangladesh who ends his duty term with UNOCI next week.
Gen. Béréna is an experienced Togolese military officer and as the new Force Commander for UNOCI will lead the peacekeeping operation during time in which the power struggle between forces loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo and those backing president-elect Alassane Ouattara.
On Monday, Abidjan, the country’s capital, witnessed heavy fighting after Gbagbo supporters launched an assault on Ouattara’s forces over the weekend to force them out the northern Abobo district.
More than 400 people have died in the violent crisis stemming from the December 2010 presidential elections which were meant to be the culminating point in reunifying a country split by civil war in 2002 into a Government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.
Some 20,000 people have been internally displaced and over 33,000 more have fled to neighboring Liberia due to violence. Gbagbo recently demanded the withdrawal of UNOCI, which has been supporting the stabilization efforts over the past seven years.
The UN Security Council rejected the demand and instead authorized the immediate deployment of 2,000 additional troops and three armed helicopters. UNOCI currently has approximately 10,000 troops in the African country.
Gen. Béréna is a former chief of army staff in Togo, as well as a special adviser to his country’s President. He has also served as a sector commander with the then UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) in 1993-94.
