The chairperson of the African Union, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, is “very concerned” about an outbreak of fighting in Côte d’Ivoire and plans to host a crisis meeting of regional leaders on Saturday, his spokesperson said.
Obasanjo will hold talks with the chairperson of the AU commission, Oumar Alpha Konare, and “stakeholders” from the West African region at his farm in Otta, south-west Nigeria, spokesperson Remi Oyo said.
She said details of which, if any, Ivorian representatives will attend will be released later.
“The president is very concerned about the situation. He spoke with United States President George Bush on the telephone this morning and used the opportunity to brief him on what the AU is trying to do. There’s going to be high-level meeting here tomorrow,” Oyo said.
Obasanjo currently chairs the pan-African AU, which has a security council. Other regional leaders reportedly involved in peace efforts include Ghana’s John Kufuor and Togo’s Gnassingbe Eyadema.
Kufuor is chairperson of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, which has sent peacekeepers to several troubled countries over the past decade. Eyadema has been serving as mediator on behalf of the region.
The simmering crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, which has been effectively divided between the loyalist south and rebel-held north since an attempted coup in September 2002 triggered a civil war, erupted once again on Thursday with government air strikes on northern cities and political violence in Abidjan.
Regional leaders have called for calm amid fears that a 22-month-old French-brokered peace accord that brought former rebel leaders into a government of national unity could break down and plunge the country back into civil strife. — Sapa-AFP
Warplanes bomb Côte d’Ivoire city