South African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday held a second round of talks with Côte d’Ivoire rebel leader Guillaume Soro to try to advance prospects for peace in the troubled West African country, a spokesperson said.
Mbeki had met late on Sunday with Soro, chief of the New Forces rebels holding the northern part of Côte d’Ivoire, after holding consultations with political opposition leaders Alassane Ouattara and Lambert Kouassi Konan in Pretoria.
The meetings are ”to reflect on the roadmap that was agreed to previously, checking where we are and looking at the way forward with regard to the roadmap,” said presidential spokesperson David Hlabane.
Mbeki submitted a five-point roadmap or peace blueprint during a peace mission to Côte d’Ivoire in December that provides for disarmament and restoring a power-sharing government among other issues.
Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s top producer of cocoa, has been split since September 2002, when a military mutiny failed to topple President Laurent Gbagbo but the rebels gained control of the northern half of the country.
The two sides have been kept apart by United Nations and French peacekeepers.
Following the second meeting with Soro on Monday that was also attended by SA Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, Mbeki was expected to hold talks again with Ouattara and Konan at the presidential guest house, said Hlabane.
”We expect the talks to go late into the night,” he said, adding that further meetings may be held on Tuesday.
Under an accord signed at Marcoussis in France in January 2003, a government of national unity was formed in Côte d’Ivoire, but an attack by government forces on northern positions in November halted any progress toward compromise.
The rebels have pulled out of Cabinet meetings, saying their safety cannot be guaranteed.
The talks in Pretoria were the first series of meetings with opposition figures since Mbeki unveiled the roadmap last month.
The South African president has travelled twice to Côte d’Ivoire and hosted talks in Pretoria since he was asked by the 53-nation African Union in November to broker peace talks.
The roadmap also calls for enacting laws to address a dispute over a provision of the Ivorian Constitution that states that the parents of candidates to presidential elections must be Ivorian-born.
This provision has been used to bar Ouattara, who has been living in exile in France. – Sapa-AFP