The United Nations wants between 1 000 and 2 000 additional peacekeepers for Côte d’Ivoire as the world body presses incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down after a disputed election.
The West African country has been in turmoil since the November 28 poll that Western powers and African states say was won by Gbagbo’s rival, Alassane Ouattara, leading to a stand-off that has killed more than 170 people and raised fears of civil war.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told Reuters the UN would formally request between 1 000 and 2 000 additional troops for Côte d’Ivoire from the 15-nation Security Council, and said he hoped they could be deployed within weeks.
Gbagbo’s government called again for the UN peacekeeping mission to leave the country, after the UN said it recognised Ouattara as the winner of the election. The UN has had 10 000 troops in the country since a 2002/03 civil war split it in two.
West African regional bloc Ecowas has threatened Gbagbo with force if he does not cede power to Ouattara, but it has said intervention would be a last resort and opened the door to negotiations after Gbagbo agreed to further talks.
A solution to the crisis in the world’s top cocoa producer now appears distant. Ouattara has dismissed the offer of talks, saying the use of force is the only solution.
He told France 24 television that Gbagbo “must leave power to allow Côte d’Ivoire to return to normal” and said a military intervention need not trigger another civil war.
No sign of yielding to pressure
Analysts doubt that Ecowas has the means or the will to use force, which could lead to destructive urban warfare and heavy civilian casualties.
“Military intervention does not mean that the Côte d’Ivoire will ignite,” Ouattara said from the Golf Hotel, where he is under UN protection. “All that needs to be done, as has been done in other African countries, is to come and get Gbagbo and remove him from the presidential palace.”
Gbagbo has shown no sign of caving to international pressure, sanctions and the threat of force, and has accused world leaders of meddling in Côte d’Ivoire’s internal affairs.
The head of his youth group, Charles Ble Goude, late on Wednesday called on his supporters to resist any foreign occupation.
“This gentleman [Ouattara] forgets that no army, however powerful, can come here and remove Gbagbo in order to install him,” he told a crowd of 5 000. “Are you going to accept that?”
“No, no, no!” the crowd shouted back.
The UN says Gbagbo’s state media has used anti-UN propaganda to stir up popular hostility to the peacekeepers. — Reuters