Chiefs to meet on I Coast
2003-04-01 13:41
Dakar - Military chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) are due to meet in Dakar on a peacekeeping force for Ivory Coast, crippled by a seven-month rebel war, officials said on Tuesday.
Some 1 100 soldiers from Ecowas member states have already been deployed in Ivory Coast, with the regional peacekeeping force due to number about 1 200 troops.
The talks initially planned for Tuesday "will finally take place on Wednesday" in the Senegalese capital, a Senegalese military official said.
The west African force is made up of soldiers from Niger, Senegal, Benin, Ghana and Togo and is eventually due to take over peacekeeping duties from French troops, who have been deployed in Ivory Coast since last October to monitor a ceasefire.
A rebellion by disgruntled soldiers in Ivory Coast on September 19 last year quickly developed into a low-level war that has divided the country in two, geographically and ideologically.
Ecowas is made up of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.