Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga ended an African Union mediation mission to Côte d’Ivoire on Wednesday, saying talks had failed to resolve a dispute over the November 28 presidential election.
“Despite extensive discussions .. with Mr Laurent Gbagbo and president-elect Alassane Ouattara, that went very late into the night, I regret to announce that the breakthrough that was needed, did not materialise,” he told reporters at the airport as he was about to leave.
“Time is running out,” he added of efforts to peacefully resolve the stand-off between the two rival claimants that risks sending the world’s top cocoa grower back into a civil war.
Peaceful end
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s president said in a statement on Tuesday that West African nations wanted to resolve the country’s crisis peacefully, but a threat to use force remains valid if Gbagbo does not step down.
President Goodluck Jonathan “has said the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) would be happy to peacefully resolve the impasse in Cote dIvoire,” the statement said.
However, the Nigerian president, the current Ecowas chairperson, told the African Union mediator Raila Odinga that “we have not changed the position we took during our last summit”, when the threat to use force was made.
Jonathan said “the votes of citizens must count after they are cast, or democracy will not take hold in the continent”, the statement said.
Gbagbo gave new assurances on Tuesday that he is open to talks with Ouattara, while Ecowas military chiefs met to finalise plans for a possible intervention to remove the incumbent leader. – Reuters, AFP