Don't forget Ivory Coast, U.N. pleads

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Ivory Coast still lacks a foundation upon which to build a program for national reconciliation, a U.N. representative said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Ivory Coast this week, said she was "very pleased" with progress made in the country following a November 2010 election that pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

But Catherine Bragg, assistant U.N. secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said there were 15,000 people living in camps for the internally displaced and many of the mechanisms needed to foster a climate of reconciliation are missing.

"I don't want the world to move on and say everything in Ivory Coast is fine," she said in a statement.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said this week that his nation was at peace.

The 2010 election that was meant to unite a country divided by an earlier civil war left former President Laurent Gbagbo in prison in The Hague, though human rights groups said both sides likely committed atrocities during the conflict.

Bert Koenders, U.N. special envoy to Ivory Coast, left the country this week to update the Security Council about the situation there. His spokesman said plans for the current situation must be accompanied by a vision for the future.