President Laurent Gbagbo will on Monday be in Bouake, the headquarters of the former rebel New Forces (FN), for the first time since a 2002 uprising aimed at toppling him divided Côte d’Ivoire in half.
It was from Bouake that the northern half of this West African country was controlled by rebels for nearly five years.
Gbagbo will preside over a highly symbolic disarmament and reconciliation ceremony, in a new boost to the peace process that reunited the country. A stockpile of weapons will be set alight to symbolise the official start of disarmament in the second-largest city.
Dubbed the ”Flame of Peace”, the ceremony is also a celebration of the reconciliation that has taken hold following the latest peace deal brokered by neighbour Burkina Faso between Gbagbo and the FN.
The new accord has gone further than earlier mediation attempts under ex-colonial power France, the United Nations, the African Union and a West African bloc.
Nevertheless, a few remaining obstacles have slowed the application of the agreement. These include the reform of the army and voter registration ahead of elections, both of which were supposed to have started in April.
And the Bouake ceremony, which has been postponed several times, will take place amid an atmosphere of some tension and fears of unrest. Following the attempt on Soro’s life, government troops were put on maximum alert because of fears of renewed attacks.
It was here, on June 29, that a plane carrying Guillaume Soro, the former leader of the FN rebels, came under attack as it came in to land. Soro, who since April has been Prime Minister of the national unity government, survived the attack, but four of his aides were killed.
Soro moved quickly to dampen speculation over who was responsible for the attack and called for an international inquiry led by the UN. ”We will see to it that what people will remember Bouake for, is not war, but peace,” he said recently.
Gbagbo’s camp plans to bus in tens of thousands of supporters to Bouake in a ceremony that also appears to be a new consolidation of powers of the hard-line president.
”It is a powerful symbol of reunification. Loyalist soldiers will be side by side with rebel soldiers. The war is truly over,” said Gbagbo’s spokesperson Gervais Coulibaly.
In April, as a first move to reunite the divided country, former arch-foes Gbagbo and Soro dismantled a 12 000-square-kilometre buffer zone that had separated their forces.
Gbagbo, who has declared Monday a public holiday, has invited other African leaders.
President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Ghanaian leader and AU chairperson John Kufuor will attend. Compaore in particular was instrumental in helping to broker the peace deal in Côte d’Ivoire.
Also expected are Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Faure Yassingbe of Togo, Mali’s Amadou Toumani Toure and Yayi Boni of Benin, said Alain Lobognon, a member of the organising committee.
More than 1 000 troops — government and former rebel fighters — will join forces to provide front-line security for presidents in Bouake on Monday. UN and French peacekeeping troops will be responsible for general policing of the crowds.
A series of concerts is planned in the city all night on Sunday in the build-up to the main ceremony the next day, organisers said. — Sapa-AFP