Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo said on Monday ”the war is over” between his government and northern rebels, as the two sides moved to dismantle a military buffer zone and reunite the war-divided country.
”The country is being reunited; the war is over, dear friends and compatriots, the war is over,” Gbagbo said as he and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, a former rebel leader, inspected the first joint parade of government and rebel forces since a 2002-2003 civil war split the West African country in two.
The parade in the capital, Yamoussoukro, took place shortly before United Nations forces started pulling back from a buffer-zone checkpoint at Tiebissou under a peace plan signed last month by Gbagbo and Soro in the world’s number-one cocoa producer.
Under the March 4 plan, UN and French peacekeepers in the buffer zone will pull back in stages and be gradually replaced by mixed brigades of government and rebel soldiers.
Although fighting between the two sides had ceased four years ago, the buffer zone had effectively marked the division between the rebel-held north and the government-held south, hindering transport and communication between the two halves.
The peace plan, a home-grown deal that followed the failure of several internationally brokered accords, foresees the holding of elections by early next year after key disarmament and national identity procedures are carried out.
Gbagbo said the ceasefire zone dividing the country was the biggest obstacle to polls being held.
”From today onwards, we have no more excuses not to organise elections … Mr Prime Minister, prepare the elections,” the president said, although he did not specify a date. — Reuters