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UN warns of real risk for Cote d'Ivoire

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Cote d'Ivoire's incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, has accused the international community of trying to bring a fight to the country.

He called on the public to stay calm and declared the United Nations and the French will leave.

The UN is warning Cote d'Ivoire faces a real risk of return to civil war and has condemned the attack on its peacekeeping forces in the country.

Laurent Gbagbo went on national television to accuse the international community of ulterior motives in their support of Ouattara.

Laurent Gbagbo, Cote d'Ivoire's incumbent president, said, "The international community and the others are doing it not because the Ivorians want it, but because they want to install a person they want as president."

The UN has certified Ouattara as the winner of the November 28 vote. On Saturday, Gbagbo ordered the nearly nine-thousand UN peacekeepers to leave immediately.

The UN not only refused, but a Security Council resolution adopted unanimously has extended the force's mandate until June 30th, 2011.

The UN mission in the country, UNOCI, which has been harboring UN-endorsed Ouattara in the Golf Hotel, has come under fire from Gbagbo's supporters.

The situation escalated on December 18th with an attack on UNOCI in Abidjan.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has rejected accusations the world body is violating Cote d'Ivoire's sovereignty.

And he rallied UN members, declaring the disruption of supplies for the UN mission will worsen the situation.

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, said, "I therefore strongly appeal to member States, who are in a position to do so, to prepare to support the Mission, to assist with the continued flow of supplies."

Cote d'Ivoire was once an economic hub because of its role as the world top cocoa producer.

But a civil war between 2002 to 2003 split the country into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south.

The UN says more than 50 people have been killed in recent days. And it's received hundreds of reports of people being abducted from their homes at night by armed assailants in military uniforms.

 

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