UN sends 500 more troops for Ivory Coast Presidential Elections

by Sara Atteby | 11 octobre 2010 16 h 27 min

In preparation for the upcoming Presidential elections planned for 31^st October in the Ivory Coast, the United Nations Security Council agreed in September to send a further 500 ‘Blue Helmets’ to add to their peacekeeping force there, known as ‘UNOCI’. The purpose of these additional troops, says UN spokesman Hamadoun Touré is “to beef up UNOCI’s strength”, providing logistical and technical assistance for the polls.

According to the UN News Centre, 150 Senegalese soldiers have already arrived in the country and a further 150 will arrive from Togo this week. The 8650 UN officers already present in the Ivory Coast for the mission were deployed across the country to assist in delivering voter registration and ID cards last week.

By Sara Atteby