Talks aimed at unblocking the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire entered a second day on Wednesday in Pretoria with leaders drafting a document that was to be adopted later in the day, a spokesman for one of the parties said.
President Thabo Mbeki opened the talks with Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo and four other top leaders at a presidential guesthouse in Pretoria on Tuesday to push them to implement the April 6 peace accord that he brokered as the African Union’s mediator.
Aly Coulibaly, a spokesperson for former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, who is taking part in the talks, said that the parties were ”working on a text” that was to be adopted during the day.
The meeting is attended by Gbagbo, Ouattara, rebel leader Guillaume Soro, opposition leader Henri Konan Bedie and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra. The sides held nine hours of talks on Tuesday.
The Pretoria accord ran into a major hurdle this week when rebel forces made clear they would not abide by the June 27 deadline to disarm unless pro-government militias were taken out of action.
Côte d’Ivoire, once a haven of stability in West Africa and the world’s top cocoa producer, has been split in two since a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002, pitting rebels from the Muslim-dominated north against the Christian-populated south. – Sapa-AFP