AU backs arms embargo

2004-11-14 21:48

Abuja - The African Union (AU) is backing planned sanctions against Ivory Coast which are to be voted by the UN security council on Monday, "notably an arms embargo", AU chief Olusegun Obasanjo said Sunday.

"We support the proposed UN resolution, in particular the arms embargo on all parties in the country," the Nigerian president said at the end of an AU summit on the Ivory Coast crisis.

"This should be immediate."

Obasanjo spoke to journalists in the company of five African leaders who took part in the extraordinary meeting to find a way out of the festering conflict.

He said that electricity had been cut again in the rebel-held north of Ivory Coast on Sunday.

"We are alarmed because this has been used in the past as a prelude to an armed attack and we call on everybody to observe a ceasefire and not to start anything that could amount to mounting a further attack," he warned.

- AFP