Africa News

Ivory Coast abolishes buffer zone following peace deal

Apr 16, 2007, 17:03 GMT

Abidjan/Nairobi - Ivorian leaders Monday officially removed a 20-kilometre wide buffer zone that has divided the West African country for four years. President Laurent Gbagbo and newly-appointed Prime Minister Guillaume Soro watched with a large crowd as a UN checkpoint was demolished, symbolizing the zone's eradication. According to a peace deal signed last month, the area known as the Zone of Confidence which runs along the breadth of the Ivory Coast would be removed and part of the 10,000 UN and UN-mandated French troops patrolling the area are to be scaled-down. An attempted coup trying to remove Gbagbo set off a short-lived civil war in 2002 and split the Ivory Coast in two, with the buffer zone dividing the rebel-held north and the government controlled south. Soro, the north's leader, was recently appointed prime minister by Gbagbo, in accordance with the March 4 peace deal signed in Burkina Faso. Instead of the buffer zone, the UN said a green line will be established with 'impartial' troops stationed at observation points along it. The various rival factions in Ivory Coast's civil war have signed a series of peace deals beginning in early 2003, with none ever being fully implemented. This latest agreement is seen as the most hopeful. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Africa News

Ivory Coast abolishes buffer zone following peace deal

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