IVORY COAST: South African President Thabo Mbeki arrives in Abidjan as one of the African Union mediators expected to help Ivory Coast pick a prime minister

Record ID: 182678

  • Title: IVORY COAST: South African President Thabo Mbeki arrives in Abidjan as one of the African Union mediators expected to help Ivory Coast pick a prime minister
  • Date: 22nd November 2005
  • Summary: SOUTH AFRICA'S PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI LEAVES AIRCRAFT
  • Embargoed: 7th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA22Q4VJGAPXDZSTJQBFLXLIKW6
  • Story Text: The presidents of Nigeria, South Africa and Niger were expected to help Ivory Coast pick a prime minister during a visit to the West African country on Tuesday (November 22) as part of peace efforts there, the Ivorian government said.
    South African President Thabo Mbeki is the African Union mediator for Ivory Coast; Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo is chairman of the African Union; and Niger's President Mamadou Tandja chairs the Economic Community of West African States.
    South Africa's government said Mbeki and Obasanjo were travelling to Abidjan "to assist the people of Cote d'Ivoire find a comprehensive and lasting solution to their current challenges".
    "(They) will assist in the process of appointing a new prime minister," it added.
    Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate ended on October 30, but a United Nations resolution allows him to stay on for up to a year to work towards elections aimed at sealing a definitive peace in the world's top cocoa grower, which was split by a civil war in 2002.
    Rebels occupying the north of the country and Gbagbo's government, which holds the south, have been haggling for weeks over the choice of a new prime minister as foreseen in the U.N. plan.
    Last week, the New Forces rebels rejected a shortlist of prime ministerial candidates proposed by African mediators because their leader, Guillaume Soro, had been left off it.
    Obasanjo canvassed opinions from government and rebel leaders in Ivory Coast three weeks ago on who should be the new prime minister and promised to present a shortlist of names.
    No details of the presidents' planned talks were immediately available but they were expected to meet Gbagbo, the rebels and leaders of Ivory Coast's political opposition, who have also put forward their own candidates for the premier job.
    The rebels have accused international mediators of being biased against them and of mishandling the peace process in the former French colony.
    A series of peace deals have foundered and more than 10,000 U.N. and French peacekeepers man a porous buffer zone keeping the two sides apart.
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