Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo on Wednesday met with President John Kufuor of neighbouring Ghana, who urged him to implement a peace deal brokered by Paris to end a ruinous five-month war in Ivory Coast, diplomatic sources said.
Gbagbo held top-level talks with Kufuor at the Castle, the presidential office in downtown Accra, for about two-and-a-half hours, sources said, before leaving for Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s main city.
A source said Kufuor, whose country has just taken over the rotating presidency of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) bloc, ”impressed upon Gbagbo to implement the deal” that the Ivorian leader accepted late last month.
Another said: ”There is hope yet for the Ivorian crisis” but declined to give details of the talks.
The Ecowas has been trying to mediate an end to the conflict which has split the world’s leading cocoa grower in half, ruined its economy and its erstwhile reputation as a beacon of stability and prosperity in troubled west Africa.
The embattled Ivorian leader has postponed an eagerly awaited address to the nation on the peace pact, which sparked anti-French riots when rebels laid claim to the defence and interior ministries in a new unity government.
African leaders, the United Nations and France, Ivory Coast’s former colonial ruler, have been putting heavy pressure on Gbagbo to implement the pact.
Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade said African leaders could meet in Ivory Coast’s political capital over the weekend to end the stalemate.
”Perhaps there will be a new heads of state meeting… Saturday or Sunday in Yamoussoukro,” said Wade in Nairobi.
He said organisations such as the nascent 53-nation African Union and Ecowas as well as France would be represented at the meeting, which Gbagbo was also expected to attend.
Meanwhile, thousands of trade unionists and workers rallied outside the French embassy in Abidjan in the second week of protests to denounce the former colonial ruler for allegedly foisting a humiliating treaty on Gbagbo.
Pharmacies, banks and offices were closed as workers joined the demonstration, chanting anti-French songs, blowing whistles, and heaping insults on prime minister designate Seydou Diarra, who has refused to return home until his security has been guaranteed.
Troops were seen on the roof of the French embassy, which has been besieged and attacked since Gbagbo accepted the pact at the end of last month in Paris, igniting the anti-French violence.
Colonel Christian Baptiste, representative for the French armed forces, said in Paris that France was beefing up its military presence and would have more than 3 000 troops deployed in Ivory Coast by the end of the week.
But Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie insisted that the build-up was not an indication that Paris would soon start evacuating its 16 000 nationals.
”We will adapt based on the circumstances. What I can say today is that there is concern for our compatriots and other foreigners in Ivory Coast,” she told reporters.
As pressure mounted on Gbagbo to implement the deal, the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed the deployment of French and west African troops in the country and mandated them to use force to protect foreigners.
The vote, taken in the presence of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, empowers west African and French forces to take necessary steps to ensure their own security and freedom of movement and ”the protection of civilians threatened with imminent violence.”
There are about 700 troops from the Ecowas bloc already deployed in Ivory Coast to work in tandem with French peacekeepers.
Ivory Coast’s main rebel group has ruled out renegotiating the French-brokered deal or sacrificing the key ministries to rescue the accord.
Five leading Ivorian political parties and the armed forces have said they will not accept the insurgents in the government. – Sapa-AFP