New York, 18 October, 1004. The Secretary-General notes with concern that key deadlines of the Accra III Agreement, for the adoption of legislative reforms, the revision of Article 35 of the Constitution on eligibility to the Presidency and the commencement of the disarmament process, have not been met. He has taken note of President Laurent Gbagbo's address to the nation on 12 October 2004, and shares his views that the political crisis should be resolved without further delay. To this end, the Secretary-General urges the political forces in Côte d'Ivoire to ensure the full and unconditional implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis and Accra III Agreements, including constitutional reform and disarmament. The Secretary-General recalls that the Accra III Agreement envisaged the timely adoption of all legal reforms, including the revision of Article 35 of the Constitution on eligibility to the Presidency. In this context, he urges adoption of all legislative reforms without delay, and also appeals to all armed elements, including militias, to commence disarmament at the earliest. The Secretary-General welcomes the President's condemnation of all acts of violence against the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and the French forces, which should be unconditionally enforced by all authorities concerned.

Two years after the outbreak of civil war, Cote d'Ivoire remains partitioned and unstable. Although there has been no relapse into full-scale fighting, none of the underlying causes of the conflict have been resolved. Diplomats and political analysts worry that the fragile tribal and political divisions could be easily threatened in a presidential election environment. Time after time peace accord deadlines are extended and broken, making the country's prospects for peace very limited.

Lack of good faith on the part of all sides in the Côte d'Ivoire peace process is jeopardising the October 2005 elections and could cause the war to spread to neighbouring countries, warns the International Crisis Group in a new briefing. " None of the parties to the January 2003 Linas-Marcoussis Accords has shown the will to break the impasse and compromise on key issues of nationality, eligibility for elections, and disarmament. Meanwhile, profits from the shadowy war economy are benefiting almost everyone except ordinary citizens, making progress even less likely. If there is to be any chance of peace, the international community, and especially the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), needs to take on the spoilers more assertively and openly, and end impunity for the perpetrators of continued violence."

A month after schools were due to have resumed classes in the rebel-held north of Cote d’Ivoire, the overwhelming majority are still shut, with no teachers and very little in the way of teaching materials, education officials told IRIN. Most schools in the north closed after Cote d’Ivoire plunged into civil war 19 months ago leaving 300,000 pupils idle.

Schools in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire were supposed to have reopened this week for a belated start to the academic year, but officials said on Wednesday that few classes had started. They predicted that it would be at least another two weeks before lessons began in those schools in the main towns which were able to muster enough teachers to start the new term.

President Laurent Gbagbo met rebel leader Guillaume Soro at the presidential palace on Monday night to discuss the way forward in Cote d'Ivoire's fragile peace process following the rebels' return to a broad-based government of national reconciliation. It was the first meeting between the two men since the rebels, who occupy the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire, withdrew from the cabinet on 23 September in protest at Gbagbo's delays in implementing a French-brokered peace agreement in full.

The French peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire urged the government army and police to send reinforcements to help it maintain order in the troubled west of the country on Tuesday after reporting that 18 people had been killed there in two weeks of ethnic clashes. Colonel Georges Peillon, the official spokesman of the 4,000-strong French peacekeeping force, said tension was rising in villages around the town of Bangolo, 600 km northwest of the capital Abidjan, where French soldiers had found the bodies of 18 people killed in ethnic fighting since 29 December.

The government of Cote d'Ivoire has sent officials to four towns in the rebel-held north of the country to prepare examinations for thousands of pupils living in rebel territory who were unable to sit their normal exams in June last year, Education Ministry officials said on Monday. Education Minister Michel Amani-N'guessan announced on state television at the weekend that the government would deploy a “minimal administration” to prepare the ground for about 46,000 children to sit exams in the rebel-held cities of Bouake, Korhogo, Odienne and Man.

Ivorian rebel leaders who met the Prime Minister Seydou Diarra in the commercial capital, Abidjan, on Wednesday discussed the return of the rebels who control the northern half of the country into the government of national unity, diplomatic sources said. The rebel delegation, led by a senior official of the "New Forces" Louis-Andre Dakoury-Tabley, flew into Abidjan in the morning as their colleagues in Bouake, the rebel capital, met a delegation of the Ivorian army.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has announced that it has officially joined the investigation into the 21 October 2003 murder in Côte d’Ivoire of Radio France International (RFI) journalist Jean Hélène. The organisation also deplored the climate of hatred and tension fuelled by media on both sides in the country's civil war and noted that it endangers the lives of local and foreign journalists.

The government army and rebel forces occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire each withdrew from frontline positions close to the French-patrolled buffer zone between them on Friday ahead of talks on disarmament next week. Hardline youth groups supporting President Laurent Gbagbo meanwhile ended four days of protest demonstrations outside the French military base near Abidjan airport, where they had been demanding the departure of French peacekeepers from the frontline so that government forces could attack the north.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that Cote d'Ivoire could "slip back into conflict" as five West African governments began lobbying for a fully fledged UN peacekeeping force to be sent to the country. Annan told the UN Security Council in New York on Monday that he was "deeply concerned" by a two-month-old impasse between President Laurent Gbagbo and rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire.

A shortage of food and medical aid is threatening the lives of several thousands of displaced people living in Côte d’Ivoire’s administrative capital, Yamoussoukro, a Catholic nun told IRIN on Thursday. Yamoussoukro, 266 km north of Abidjan and an hour away from the rebel-held town of Bouake, has some 27,500 internally displaced people (IDPs) living in 4 major camps and with host families.

Côte d’Ivoire’s rebels rolled out a massive display of heavy weapons in Bouake, 379 km north of the commercial capital, Abidjan on Tuesday, hours after declaring a state of emergency in areas under their control. They said their actions were in response to government preparations to launch attacks on their positions.

The former ruling party in Cote d'Ivoire is threatening to withdraw from the reconciliation government, accusing President Laurent Gbagbo of human rights violations. The threat comes as northern-based rebels are refusing to take back their seats in the government.

Host governments, and international and national organizations; develop new programs; manage security and personnel. Liaise with Headquarters and oversee the establishment and implementation of program objectives, activities, evaluations and assessments. English and French fluency required.

A raid by 10 policemen on a publishing house in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on Monday 9 September was on Thursday condemned by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), which described it as "worrying" for press freedom in the West African country.

An action plan to assist Liberian refugees in western Côte d’Ivoire in the areas of health and environmental sanitation has been put in place, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies reported last Wednesday.

For the first time since elections two years ago ended a military-led regime, Côte d’Ivoire’s main political parties are all represented in government as a result of a cabinet reshuffle announced on Monday.

The ruling Front populaire ivoirien (FPI) and the former ruling party, le Parti democratique de Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) each took 18 councils in Côte d’Ivoire’s first-ever local elections. A total of 58 councils (called departments) were contested in Sunday's polls. Voter-turnout was however a low 30 percent and allegations of fraud have emerged.