International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has pledged his organization’s support for the new government in Ivory Coast following the arrest of former leader Laurent Gbagbo.
In an April 21 statement, Strauss-Kahn said IMF is ready to provide technical assistance and financial support to Alassane Ouattara’s administration, which is recognized by the international community as the legitimate government in Ivory Coast.
“Once [Ivorian] authorities complete an initial assessment of conditions on the ground, IMF staff are ready to enter into discussions with the authorities on an economic recovery program for 2011,” Strauss-Kahn said. “Financial assistance could follow once the main elements of the recovery plan have been finalized.”
Strauss-Kahn said the fund will also assist Ivory Coast in its bid to have its foreign debt reduced under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.
Ivory Coast is still reeling from the aftermath of political-related violence that started in December.
Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said April 21 that medical and humanitarian emergencies persist in Ivory Coast as post-election violence has intensified intercommunal tension and land rivalries.
Other non-governmental organizations have said they are distancing from the United Nations mission in Ivory Coast, or UNOCI, to help maintain their neutrality and impartiality.
“The basic principle for us, for NGOs, is to be courteous, cordial with everyone – armed or not… I greet people at all the roadblocks manned by the [Republic Forces of Côte d’Ivoire, Ouattara’s army] FRCI, I greet UNOCI, but it doesn’t go beyond that,” Philippe Conraud, head of humanitarian operations at Oxfam, told IRIN.
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