Ivory Coast

Things in the Ivory Coast are starting to get interesting. The national election commission announced that the opposition won the elections (which were late and declared false by the current president) with 54% of the votes. The current president, who won 46%, of the votes stated that the NEC results came well after the deadline. Then, the Constitutional Council, which is the highest court in IC and always backs the current president, announced that the current president won the election by 51%. So it is a big mess... People are fleeing IC and heading into Liberia and Liberian mercenaries are crossing into IC to be in position for a fight. The UN mission in IC (UNOCI) declared the opposition won the election and asked the current president to concede. The president fired back and said he was going to ask the UN to leave IC. The current president has the loyalty of the Army Commander and said that he would use the Army if needed. The Army Commander is saying he will support the current president and his decisions. President Obama called the opposition and congratulated him in the victory also. It seems that the current president does not want to give up power. The UN mission here in Liberia (UNMIL) has deployed their helicopters to the border anticipating an evacuation. All leave from UNMIL has been cancelled, so that obviously has created some issues for people who wanted to go home for Christmas. UNOCI is telling all their UN forces to leave so that they do not have to evacuate as many people. hmmmm... It also doesn't help that the current president is Christian and the opposition is Muslim. Each candidate is claiming victory and who knows what is going to happen.

We are still carrying on our mission as normal. Nothing different. The area of responsibility that I am in does not border IC, so things here are not too nuts. I guess anything can change. They told us to, "be prepared for anything." Thanks, that makes a lot of sense....

Nothing to worry though. Hopefully everything will remain calm and deescalate soon.

Here are some pics:

There was a fire near our offices (See above). Since there are no lawn mowers in Liberia (yes, its true) they hire locals to cut the grass with their machetes. The grass is normally 2-3 feet in height, so when it is cut, it dries out and remains on the ground. Now that we are in the dry season, everything is... well, dry. Also, instead of hiring people to cut the grass, people will just slash and burn it to get rid of the grasses. Someone slash and burned their area near the base and the fire meandering onto the UN base, and lit up the dry grass that is laying everywhere. Above is what happened.

We went to an abandoned airstrip; Phebe Airstrip. This plane remains. The plane and airfield were destroyed during the civil war and hasnt been fixed since.

What used to be a hangar is now home to multiple Liberian families and their livestock. Here are two black deer that are being kept in a cage for further use.

These boys live in what used to be the hangar. They were showing me their pet. I have no idea what type of animal it is.

Here is a good view of the airstrip, hangar and airplane that remain.

We visited the County Superintendent's offices and talked to the Minister of Water and Sanitation... more like lack of water and sanitation. Pretty high tech facility we got here.

This is Lt Col Kefyalew (Ethiopia) walking on the bridge that connects Guinea and Liberia.