AU to discuss I Coast
2004-12-01 15:15
Addis Ababa - Heads of the 15 states that sit on the African Union's (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will hold a summit to discuss the situation in Ivory Coast on December 10, the organisation announced on Wednesday.
Assane Ba of the AU's conflict management centre said: "The 15 heads of peace and security council member states have been invited to a meeting mainly dedicated to the crisis in Ivory Coast on December 10 in Addis Ababa."
The PSC, a body similar to the UN's Security Council, will meet at ministerial level on December 8 to prepare the summit, which was planned during an AU meeting of heads of state in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on November 14.
The aim of the Addis Ababa summit is "to find a political solution to the crisis in Ivory Coast," said Ba, adding that a report on the troubled west African state, the world's largest cocoa producer, would be presented to the heads of state.
Ethiopia to chair meeting
South African President Thabo Mbeki, whom the AU has appointed to try to end the crisis, is expected to travel to Ivory Coast in the next two or three days, his deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.
It was not clear on Wednesday if all of the body's 15 member states would be represented at the presidential level.
The meeting will be chaired by Ethiopia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the PSC.
Since September 2002, Ivory Coast has been a divided country, with the government controlling the south, rebels the north. Foreign peacekeepers monitor the lines between the two sides.
The Ivorian crisis escalated dramatically when the government launched air strikes on key towns in the north on November 4, in violation of an 18-month-old ceasefire monitored by French and other military peacekeepers.
The air strikes killed nine French peacekeepers causing the French to retaliate by destroying the small Ivorian air force.
Commitment to the accords
The French retaliation unleashed a torrent of anti-foreigner violence and vandalism and prompted the exodus of more than half of the 14 000-strong French expatriate population from the country.
Mbeki went to Abidjan on November 9 for talks with Gbagbo and has since met in Pretoria with opposition leader-in-exile Alassane Ouattara, rebel leader Guillaume Soro and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra.
During a first round of talks with Gbagbo, Mbeki said he was "very pleased" with the Ivorian president's commitment to the accords signed in January last year and a ceasefire reached in May 2003.
Rebel leader Soro told Mbeki during talks in Pretoria at the weekend that Gbagbo was the problem.
Soro said: "No credible or lasting solution for peace is possible as long as Gbagbo is around."
Mbeki has joined a chorus of African leaders in supporting a UN embargo slapped on Ivory Coast on November 15 banning arms sales for the next 13 months.