The United Nations appealed on Thursday for governments to help Ivory Coast pay a US$30 million bill for cleaning up toxic waste dumped in its main city in August, which killed 10 people. Tens of thousands of Ivorians sought treatment for vomiting, diarrhoea, nosebleeds and nausea after deadly chemical slops unloaded from a Dutch-chartered tanker were tipped onto 17 mostly open-air sites in the economic capital, Abidjan.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Thursday it was launching a fund to encourage governments to contribute to the cost of a clean-up operation, which is now nearing completion, and to the bill for restoring the polluted sites. "I am establishing a trust fund to provide a fast track mechanism for governments to immediately assist Cote d'Ivoire financially -- assistance that is needed urgently and is needed now," UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said in a statement.

"They can bring comfort to the people of Cote d'Ivoire along with the clear and unequivocal message that they are not alone and that the international community is standing by them with concrete support," he added.

UNEP said it was concerned that regardless of who was responsible for the waste dumping, it was the people of one of the world's poorest countries, already suffering from the pollution, that were being forced to pay to clear it up. Investigations are under way in Ivory Coast and abroad into the dumping of the waste, which has since been shipped in special containers to France for treatment and disposal by a French company contracted by the Ivorian government.

An inquiry commissioned by the prime minister pointed to negligence by senior civil servants including the head of Abidjan's vast port and the chief of the customs service. They are due to return to their jobs on Saturday after President Laurent Gbagbo reinstated them following their suspension by the prime minister -- triggering a public dispute between the two leaders and protests by opposition supporters.

Dutch-based oil trader Trafigura, which chartered the Panamanian-registered tanker that offloaded the waste, denies any wrongdoing, saying it entrusted the waste to an Ivorian waste disposal company set up shortly before the ship's arrival. Trafigura's director and regional director have been detained in the West African state and face charges under the country's poisoning and toxic waste laws.

The UNEP also announced it would help Ivory Coast develop a long-term strategic plan to rehabilitate the polluted sites and provide expertise to boost local environmental safeguards.

(By Peter Murphy, Planet Ark, 15/12/2006)