The European Union has agreed to enforce United Nations sanctions against Côte d’Ivoire, including a ban on arms sales and military aid, officials said on Tuesday.
The joint position was agreed by EU foreign ministers at talks on Monday, they said, and came as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on Wednesday on toughening up the sanctions regime against Côte d’Ivoire.
The UN imposed an arms embargo on Côte d’Ivoire after government planes attacked positions in the rebel-held north last month, violating an 18-month-old ceasefire and unleashing a wave of violence.
The EU agreed also to ban entry into its territory of anyone who poses ”a threat to peace and national reconciliation in Côte d’Ivoire” or anyone responsible for violations of human rights and international law.
Such people will also see any assets held in EU countries frozen.
The identities of the people concerned will become known once the UN Security Council decides on Wednesday whether to impose targeted sanctions against key players in the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire, an EU official said.
The 15-member Security Council voted on Monday to maintain the ban on arms sales.
Travel bans and freezes of bank accounts are part of the new UN sanctions package floated by France against its former star colony in West Africa after a government raid in mid-November on the central rebel stronghold of Bouake hit a French military camp, killing nine French soldiers and a US aid worker.
An aggressive French riposte wiped out the modest Ivorian air force, sending tens of thousands of government supporters into the streets for a riot of looting and vandalism. — Sapa-AFP