Experts sent by an African Union panel tasked with mediating peace in Côte d’Ivoire arrived in Abidjan on Sunday for discussions with the country’s two rival presidents.
The 20-member delegation has been tapped by a panel of five heads of state — from Burkina Faso, Chad, South Africa, Mauritania and Tanzania — designated by the AU last last month to mediate the stand-off.
The delegation is expected to stay here until Thursday, holding talks with both Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of disputed November 28 elections.
The AU has tasked the panel with securing a binding solution by the end of February to the Ivorian crisis, in which Gbagbo is refusing to step down as president in favour of Ouattara.
On Saturday, thousands of Gbagbo supporters rallied in Abidjan against the presence of Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore on the panel.
Gbagbo loyalists claim that the Burkinabe leader covertly supported a failed 2002 uprising against Gbagbo that effectively split Côte d’Ivoire in half. – AFP