UN report on attacks against Gbagbo associates in Ghana is a “despicable lie” – Ivorian President

Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara, has described as fabrication a recent UN report that Ghanaian intelligence foiled at least two attacks against Gbagbo associates in the country this year.

The Ivorian President is doubting that such events ever occurred in Ghana.

In an interview with Radio France Internationale’s (RFI), Christophe Boisbouvier on December 4, 2013, the Ivorian President said the report is “despicable” “irresponsible” and “a lie”.

Mr Ouattara said the United Nations Experts who compiled the report have acted in a way that could “discredit the UN, especially [the] Sanction Committee” adding that the report “may create difficulties in…relations with the Sanction Committees in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Liberia.”

United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on November 15, 2004 imposed sanctions on Côte d’Ivoire in response to air strikes committed by the country’s national armed forces  in violations of a ceasefire agreement signed by the Ivoirian political forces in Linas-Marcoussis in January 2003.

A UN report said Ghana government told United Nations Sanctions Committee they had “foiled” at least two missions this year by Ivory Coast agents to kill or abduct Gbagbo associates.

“The Ghanaian authorities claimed to have foiled at least two such missions in early 2013,” said the report.

“At least one former Gbagbo supporter, who had returned to Ivory Coast, “had been abducted and had disappeared,” it added.

The report further stated that payments were made to Liberian mercenaries and Ivory Coast militia commanders in a bid to head off attacks aimed at destabilising President Alassane Ouattara’s government.

The report to the Security Council, by experts who monitor UN sanctions against Liberia, in a way underscore efforts by Ouattara’s government to obstruct the threat from Gbagbo, whose refusal to concede defeat in a 2010 presidential election sparked unrest in which thousands died.

The Ivorian President revealed that his government has made a complaint to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, over the report.