[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] on Tuesday imposed 12-month sanctions [press release] on three Ivorian peace opponents. Ble Goude, Eugene Djue, and rebel commander Fofie Kouakou will have their assets frozen and restrictions placed on their travel. Goude and Djue are militant youth leaders who support Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo [BBC profile]. They have participated in beatings, rapes and extrajudicial killings and have advocated violence against UN installations, according to the sanctions committee [official website]. The committee also claims Kouakou, a military leader of the rebel group Forces Nouvelles, recruited child soldiers, sexually abused women, and carried out extrajudicial killings.

The Ivory Coast [JURIST news archive] has been divided between the government-controlled south and rebel-held north since a failed coup attempt in 2002 started a civil war [Globalist backgrounder]. The Security Council also voted earlier in the week to increase the UN presence in the Ivory Coast [SC resolution; UN News report] until March 31 with 200 soldiers from Liberia. AP has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.