Ivory Coast nod to peace plan for unification Web posted at: 5/26/2007 8:13:14 Source ::: AFP
ABIDJAN • The government of Ivory Coast said yesterday it had given full approval to a new peace plan to reunite the troubled west African country, divided since a failed coup in 2002.
A communique said a cabinet session had adopted an eight-stage process to implement an accord agreed in Ouagadougou, capital of the neighbouring state of Burkina Faso.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony that was long a beacon of peace and prosperity in west Africa, was sliced in half in 2002 when rebels attempted a coup.
After mediation attempts by France, the United Nations, the African Union and a West African regional bloc failed, President Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel leader and now Prime Minister Guillaume Soro finalised their own deal on March 4 in Ouagadougou.
Since then, talks have focused on the costs of the peace process and cost-sharing between the government and foreign donors.
Soro said yesterday following talks in Ouagadougou with President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, who helped broker the March agreement, that peace was at last possible in Ivory Coast.
"I explained to (Compaore) that the Ouagadougou accord was being implemented and that Ivorians believe peace is possible in Ivory Coast," he told journalists. The Ouagadougou accord calls for integrating the army, disarming the rebels and organising new elections in 10 months time.
All the measures were set to start on April 23, but the dismantling of the militias was delayed and the integration of the military, census-taking and organisation of the new elections, have yet to begin.
But Soro said the reform of the army was now in progress.
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