A resolution adopted by the council also renews financial sanctions and travel bans on political figures for violating human rights and blocking peace, including former president Laurent Gbagbo, who is facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Ivory Coast headed to the brink of civil war in early 2011 after then-president Gbagbo refused to concede defeat after losing the presidential runoff vote to Alasanne Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the election. Ouattara was sworn in last May.

The council welcomed “the steady progress and achievements” the country has made in the past months in restoring stability, by holding parliamentary elections, addressing immediate security challenges, advancing economic recovery and strengthening international and regional cooperation. It also acknowledged the efforts by all Ivorians to promote national reconciliation and consolidate peace.

It authorized several exceptions to the arms embargo, including for training security and military forces and for activities to support reform of the security sector. Civilian vehicles can also be provided to the Ivorian security forces.

But the Security Council expressed concern about “the unresolved challenge of reforming the country’s security sector and disarming and reintegrating former combatants, and it said the situation in the country “continues to pose a threat to international peace and security in the region.”

U.N. sanctions on Ivory Coast, including the arms embargo and ban on importing rough diamonds, have been in effect since 2004.

The resolution adopted Thursday extends sanctions until April 30, 2013.

Last week, the Security Council examined a report from a panel of experts monitoring implementation of sanctions which reported violations of the arms embargo and diamond smuggling.

It reported gun-running into Ivory Coast from Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Senegal from munitions companies and suppliers in countries as far-flung as France, Belarus and Romania up until Gbagbo’s ouster last year.

The generals now in charge of the small, unstable west African country also pledged a one-year transition back to democracy, a day after regional bloc Ecowas decided to send hundreds of troops to the country.

Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, has a history of coups and other political violence and has in recent years become a major cocaine trafficking hub between South America and Europe.

The military launched the latest coup on April 12, in the middle of a two-round presidential election in which outgoing prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior was the frontrunner and the opposition claimed fraud.

Troops then attacked Gomes’ residence with rocket-propelled grenades and detained him, along with interim president Raimundo Pereira, in a power grab that sparked regional and international condemnation.

On Thursday, a summit of the Economic Community of West African States or Ecowas gave the junta 72 hours to agree to a return to constitutional order and to allow in 500 to 600 troops or face targeted sanctions.

The 15-member bloc, which also condemned a coup in Mali, told both countries to restore democracy and hold elections within a year.

A victim watches the trial of Liberian ex-leader Charles Taylor (on screen) taking place in the Hague, inside the Special Court in Freetown on April 26, 2012.

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE : Former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor was convicted on Thursday on war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone, prosecutors said.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) announced that Taylor was convicted on all counts of an 11-count indictment which alleged that he was responsible for crimes committed by rebel forces during Sierra Leone’s ten-year-long civil war.

The Court’s Trial Chamber II unanimously found that Taylor aided and abetted Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) rebels in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone. The Chamber found that he had aided and abetted the rebels by providing them with arms and ammunition, military personnel, operational support and moral support, making him individually responsible for their crimes.

According to the court, Taylor participated from Liberia in the commission of crimes by AFRC and RUF rebels and was individually responsible for them, although he did not commit these in person. Specifically, Taylor was convicted on acts of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, outrages upon personal dignity, cruel treatment, inhumane acts, including mutilations and amputations, recruitment, enlistment and use of child soldiers, enslavement, and for pillage.

With the conviction, Charles Taylor is the first head of state to be indicted, tried and convicted by an international tribunal.

The sentencing judgement is scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday, May 30. However, under the Special Court Rules, a life sentence or the death penalty may not be imposed. Sentences must be given in a specified term of years. In addition, Taylor was ordered remanded in custody until May 16, which is the scheduled sentencing hearing.