Mbeki to I Coast as AU mediator
2004-11-24 11:33
Pretoria - South African President Thabo Mbeki is to travel to strife-torn Ivory Coast next week on a new mission as the African Union's special mediator, his spokesperson said on Wednesday.
"President Mbeki will be in Ivory Coast next week. He will be accompanied by Defence Minister Mosuioa Lekota and other senior officials who have been involved in his mediation efforts," presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said.
Mbeki is to hold talks in Abdijan and also travel to the rebel stronghold of Bouake in the north of the divided west African country, he added.
It will be the second peace mission to Ivory Coast for Mbeki, who was asked earlier this month by the African Union to try to help resolve the crisis in the former French colony.
Lekota was in Abdijan on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for Mbeki's visit, which should last two or three days. The defence minister was scheduled to hold talks with President Laurent Gbagbo, said Khumalo.
Ivory Coast, once France's star colony and an oasis of peace and prosperity in troubled west Africa, has been split in half by a September 2002 uprising.
It lurched back into crisis after 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.
Mbeki travelled 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 to try to put peace accords back on track.