The Côte d’Ivoire’s armed forces and three rebel groups in this troubled west African country have agreed to a weapon-free zone where both sides could move freely without weapons, a military official said on Monday.
Nestor Djido, the representative for a west African peacekeeping force deployed to help end the ruinous war that has split the country since September, said the two sides had rejected the idea of a buffer zone and opted instead for a ”zone of confidence”, the parameters of which are yet to be indentified.
French military peacekeepers and troops from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) will be deployed in the area. The zone will be chalked out during an upcoming meeting of the belligerents on May 18 in the central city of Bouake, the headquarters of Côte d’Ivoire’s main rebel movement since September, Djido said.
”The two sides are guarding their positions and are sensitising their men about the ceasefire line,” he added.
The army and the rebels, who are holding the north of Côte d’Ivoire and vast swathes of the west near Liberia, have agreed that French and West African peacekeepers should be free to move throughout the country, Didjo further added.
The ceasefire between the Côte d’Ivoire armed forces and the three rebel movements came into force at midnight on Saturday, and covers the whole of the country, including the west, where neighbouring Liberia has been accused of backing the rebels against the former government of President Laurent Gbagbo.
It also contains a clause that provides for the disarmament of mercenaries and armed groups operating on both sides. Under the agreement, the warring parties accept the deployment from west Africa and some 900 troops from France, Côte d’Ivoire’s former colonial ruler. ‒ Sapa-AFP