Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has signed a decree naming the interim defence and interior ministers in a unity government aimed at ending a ruinous rebel war, said official sources on Wednesday.
The move was denounced by the main rebel group in the west African state. The Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) said it ”denounced and condemned” the appointments, which it said violated an agreement reached under French mediation in January.
Gbagbo designated Adou Assoa from the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party as interim defence minister and Fofana Zemogo from the main opposition Rally of Republicans (RDR) party to provisionally hold the interior portfolio.
Both are members of the new power-sharing government. Assoa is currently in charge of water and forests while opposition candidate Zemogo is the minister for higher education.
The new government comprises members of three rebel groups which have been holding the north and west of the country since a rebellion in the army last September 19. It also has members from all leading political parties.
The government has been officially named but has yet to start functioning. It has come under fire since a French-mediated peace accord in January after rebels insisted that they had been promised the key defence and interior ministries.
This demand was opposed by the armed forces, President Gbagbo’s militant supporters and four leading political parties.
But the main rebel group, the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement, later gave up their claims to the key security ministries during peace talks in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
After Wednesday’s announcement MPCI representative Antoine Beugre said the appointments of the defence and interior ministers should have been appointed by Ivory Coast’s National Security Committee (CNS), and not directly by Gbagbo and his prime minister, Seydou Diarra.
He said the decision should have been taken by consensus when the CNS meets on Friday in Yammoussoukro, the central city that is Ivory Coast’s official capital.
The rebels want more safety guarantees before they come to the government-controlled south — where the main city of Abidjan is located — to start work.
The rebels also said that Albert Tevoedjre, the special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the head of an international team of monitors tracking the implementation of the French-brokered peace deal, met on Wednesday with rebel leaders in their central headquarters of Bouake for talks.
Tevoedjre is also due to tour the sub-region for talks relating to the Ivorian crisis from Thursday. He is expected to visit Burkina Faso, Ghana and Benin and return on Sunday.
The international monitors have repeatedly called for the new government to be set up ”as soon as possible” and start work. – Sapa-AFP