Military team plans ECOWAS deployment

Military chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held a closed door meeting on Friday in Abidjan to plan the deployment of a regional ceasefire-monitoring force. The military chiefs were scheduled to present their proposals on Saturday to regional defense ministers, who would later announce details regarding the ECOWAS force and its deployment, sources said. The 14-member regional body plans to deploy the force to allow negotiations involving the government and the insurgents to end the five-week military uprising in Cote d'Ivoire, news agencies reported. Regional leaders agreed on a mediation strategy for the Cote d'Ivoire crisis when they met on Wednesday in Abidjan. They mandated Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema to lead negotiations with the Ivorian government and the rebels. On Thursday, military officials from West African countries, Britain, France and the USA met with the army and rebels to discuss the deployment of the regional force. "The purpose of the meeting was to brief them on the deployment of the force and to agree with them where and when," the French news service AFP quoted a Ghanaian official with the delegation as saying. "We have agreed that the force will deploy initially on the same lines of the French troops," he said. ECOWAS is expected to deploy a brigade of three battalions, or about 2,400 troops, in two weeks, the official was quoted as saying. French troops currently monitoring the ceasefire are expected to leave once the regional force is in place, news agencies said. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported on Thursday that it had stepped up aid to meet the needs of trapped civilians in the rebel-controlled city of Bouake, 350 km north of Abidjan. "ICRC dispatched a convoy on 18 October to bring food, medical supplies, and chemicals for the water-treatment plant. A new ambulance was part of the convoy. Earlier the ICRC had begun sending food aid to institutions (social-welfare centers, hospitals, orphanages, centers for leprosy victims) and poor neighbourhoods [for] some 10,000 most vulnerable people," ICRC said. "To prevent the outbreak of diseases caused by poor hygiene conditions, Red Cross workers are carrying out garbage collection, which had been interrupted since the events began. The Red Cross is also burying bodies or returning them where possible to next of kin," it added. ICRC has also provided medical supplies to hospitals in rebel-controlled towns of Ferkéssedougou, 580 km north of Abidjan and Korhogo, 634 km north of Abidjan. In Daloa, 350 km northwest of Abidjan, it had sent first-aid workers to bring injured people to the city's regional hospital and provided medical supplies.