South African President Thabo Mbeki, the chief mediator in war-torn Côte d’Ivoire, arrived in the country on Tuesday for talks on choosing a new prime minister to unblock the peace process.
Mbeki will meet with Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo and Niger President Mamadou Tandja. All three have been mandated by the United Nations Security Council to choose a transitional prime minister for the West African nation.
They will meet with Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo and the political oppositon groups.
Under a United Nations resolution, Côte d’Ivoire is to be given a consensus prime minister “with full powers” to run the government and organise a presidential election by October 31, 2006.
The election was supposed to have been held by the end of last month, but was abandoned after it proved impossible to organise polling with half of the country controlled by rebels and Gbagbo determined to cling on to power.
Gbagbo is now expected to remain in office until another vote can be organised, but his supporters, the rebels and the mainstream opposition have so far been unable to agree on a prime minister and the peace process appears once more to be deadlocked.
According to the UN resolution 1633, the prime minister should have been named by October 31, but that date was moved to November 15 and the deadline has now passed.
Côte d’Ivoire has been divided and in a state of crisis since war broke out in 2002, pitting Gbagbo’s government against rebels who control the north of the country.
The 2003 Marcoussis peace accords, signed in Paris, were to end fighting between the factions and bring about a political settlement, but have never taken hold beyond a shaky transitional regime and a ceasefire monitored by French and UN troops. – AFP