Ivory Coast a top priority
2003-12-18 09:56
Accra - Faced with the threat of continued instability in Ivory Coast, West African heads of state will use a summit here on Friday to plot a solution to the crisis that has crippled the one-time regional powerhouse.
The Ivory Coast conflict has the potential "to engulf other countries in the sub-region... and threaten the peace and security of the entire sub-region," warned Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
While not expressly convened to discuss Ivory Coast, Friday's Ecowas summit is the latest attempt to reconcile the government with rebels whose coup bid in September 2002 erupted into 15 months of war, sending shockwaves around a region reliant on Ivory Coast's seaports and cocoa-based economy since its independence in 1960.
Ghanaian sources said the grouping would announce on Friday the expansion of the Ecowas force in Ivory Coast in anticipation of a favourable report, expected in January, by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the UN Security Council about its request for a UN peacekeeping mission in the divided country.
Currently 1 200 Ecowas and 4 000 French troops are monitoring a ceasefire in place in the divided country since July, while a small observation-only UN mission has had its mandate extended through February.
Rumours are rife in both the main Ivory Coast city Abidjan and Accra that the former rebels, known since stalled January peace accords as the New Forces, will use Friday's meeting in the Ghanaian capital to announce their return to the unity government they quit in September.
A new rotating chair for the grouping would also be discussed on Friday but sources in Ghana suggest that Kufuor will likely hold office for another year.
A senior Ecowas diplomat said that "Kufuor has been reluctant as he wanted to concentrate on his campaign" for re-election as president of Ghana.
"As of Monday, he seems to have resigned himself to chairing Ecowas for another year," the source said on condition of anonymity.
Guinean President Lansana Conte, facing re-election for a third term on Sunday, is a likely no-show due to ill-health, Ecowas sources said.
Conte would be alone among the 15 heads of state not attending the summit that brings an end to more than a week of meetings focused on security, trade and good governance in the volatile sub-region of 250 million people.
The litany of woes facing the 15 Ecowas member states only begins with war, and encompasses illiteracy, malnutrition, diseases eradicated in other parts of the world and crushing poverty. Residents of eight Ecowas countries survive on less than one dollar a day.