- Title: IVORY COAST: Residents of Abidjan call for feuding leaders to reach a compromise
- Date: 28th December 2010
- Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
- Embargoed: 12th January 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Cote d'Ivoire
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA23TLKELHJCFWH9NQYZF4SCWQG
- Story Text: Residents of Abidjan were calling on Monday (December 27) for their leaders to sort out their problems so they could get back to their normal lives.
"Nowadays the people of Ivory Coast live one day at a time, whatever the solution to the crisis is one has to think about the population that can't go to work so can't eat. It is not a problem for the civil servants but it is a real problem for those who live one day at a time," Wilfrid Djedje, a student, told Reuters.
Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara has called for a nationwide general strike from Monday to paralyse the country until internationally isolated incumbent Laurent Gbagbo cedes power.
"The real solution is to sit down and discuss, it is a dialogue between Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, they are brothers, they have known each other for a long time, they are people of Ivory Coast. The best solution is to sit down and discuss, find solutions. If the country has to have 2 Presidents... there will be a President and a Vice-President for the people's happiness. We've had too much bloodshed, we are tired... honestly, we are tired," said another man.
"If the people don't work, it doesn't help anyone even them. If people don't work, can the Golf Hotel operate? It doesn't work... with no water or no electricity... so... for me... it's incongruous...it doesn't serve any purpose. Now, it is not the solution," added another.
Ouattara is holed up in the Golf Hotel, protected by United Nations troops.
The world's top cocoa producing country has faced a violent political impasse since a presidential election last month, which was intended to heal the scars of a 2002-2003 civil war but has instead triggered bloodshed between the rival camps.
Road traffic in Abidjan was normal on Monday, the day before a visit by three west African heads of state sent by regional organisation ECOWAS to urge Gbagbo to quit. ECOWAS has threatened to use force if Gbagbo does not relinquish power.
International pressure has piled on Gbagbo to step down after the Nov. 28 election, which the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, the African Union and West African regional bloc ECOWAS all say Ouattara won.
Provisional election results showed an Ouattara victory but the results were overturned by a court led by a Gbagbo ally.
In an interview with France's Le Figaro newspaper on Sunday, Gbagbo said he was taking seriously ECOWAS' threat to remove him by force but said he was not worried by it.
"All threats must be taken seriously. But it would be the first time that African countries were willing to go to war against another country because an election went wrong," Gbagbo said, adding that he was a victim of an international plot.
The United States and European Union have slapped travel sanctions on Gbagbo and his inner circle, while the World Bank and the West African regional central bank have cut off his finances, which means he may soon have trouble paying troops.
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