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West Africa struggles to resolve Ivory Coast crisis
Ola Awoniyi .. December 30, 2010 - 4:29AM

West African leaders sought to negotiate an end Wednesday to the crisis in the Ivory Coast, even as they planned for a possible military intervention to force Laurent Gbagbo to cede power.

Three regional heads of state had flown to Ivory Coast on Tuesday to warn Gbagbo to hand over power to his rival Alassane Ouattara or face military action, but left without a clear answer, promising to return next week.

"We are still talking," said Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, chairman of the regional bloc ECOWAS and leader of its military powerhouse. "People are negotiating. We are discussing. That is why they (envoys) are going back."

The foreign minister of Cape Verde, one of the states that delivered the ECOWAS ultimatum, said the region had dropped the threat of invasion "for now", but it emerged that military chiefs had begun laying plans for action.

Abdel-Fatau Musah, director of external relations for the 15-member ECOWAS, said senior officers began meeting Tuesday and Nigerian defence spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yerimah confirmed the session was under way.

A senior diplomat said the meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja was about "the military planning ... and the logistics" of any eventual operation.

The planning came as the three leaders who went to Ivory Coast admitted they had failed to convince Gbabgo to make way for Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of last month's presidential election.

Presidents Boni Yayi of Benin, Ernest Koroma of Sierra Leone and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde had gone to Abidjan to deliver Gbagbo an ultimatum: cede power or face the prospect of an intervention by ECOWAS forces.

The troika then flew on to Abuja to brief Nigeria's Goodluck, who admitted the envoys had not broken the deadlock and said they would return on January 3.

Pires had earlier said that a return to Ivory Coast was necessary.

His office said the "Ivorian parties" had asked for "time to reflect in order to find a viable way to conclude the electoral process, which is the only way to promote durable peace and stability in this West African country."

Jorge Borges, Cape Verde's foreign affairs secretary, said the focus of regional efforts was to find a mediated solution and that talk of a military intervention had been put on the back burner.

"This initial mediation has helped to establish a bridge to dialogue between the camps, and we are no longer talking of military intervention by ECOWAS which seems, thankfully, to have been set aside for the moment," he told AFP.

However Ouattara's spokesman Patrick Achi said: "The mediators' mission confirmed that Laurent Gbagbo is no longer president, it is only his departure that is being negotiated.

"If Cape Verde is saying that military action has been ruled out, it must certainly have news that Laurent Gbagbo is ready to go peacefully. And, with ECOWAS military chiefs meeting, the military option stays on the table."

Both Gbagbo and Ouattara claim to have won Ivory Coast's November 28 run-off election, but only the latter has been recognised as president by the world community, including ECOWAS, the United Nations and the European Union.

The EU upped the pressure Wednesday boosting to 61 the number of Gbagbo allies on whom it has placed a visa ban, a diplomatic source said.

Gbagbo's forces dominate the south of the country, home to the world's largest cocoa-exporting industry and the commercial capital Abidjan, while Ouattara's shadow government is blockaded inside its hotel headquarters.

There is no sign of the defiant incumbent loosening his grip. Gbagbo's supporters have begun harrassing UN peacekeepers and his regime has issued veiled threats against West African migrants living in Ivory Coast.

The country is home to millions of foreign workers, drawn to what is still a major economic hub of West Africa to work in huge cocoa plantations, major ports and a small but promising oil production sector.

Even before the poll, the country was split in two between the rebel-held north and Gbagbo's southern strongholds, and loyalist security forces hold Abidjan in an iron grip.

His troops have cornered Ouattara's shadow government in his former campaign headquarters, a luxury golf resort on the outskirts of the city protected by a cordon of 800 UN peacekeepers and supplied by helicopter.

Gbagbo has ordered French and UN troops to leave Ivory Coast, a demand they have rejected insisting they recognise only Ouattara's rule, and around the city the UN "Blue Helmets" are under increasing pressure.

On Tuesday a Bangladeshi soldier was wounded by a machete blow during a mob attack and a UN truck burnt out by pro-Gbagbo demonstrators.

The United Nations estimates that at least 173 people have been killed in post-election violence, many dragged from their homes at night by pro-Gbagbo forces, and that more than 19,000 refugees have fled the country.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/west-africa-struggles-to-resolve-ivory-coast-crisis-20101229-19a8v.html

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