AU envoy: Time running out for peaceful end to Ivory Coast crisis

Jan 19, 2011, 11:26 GMT

Nairobi - Time is running out for a peaceful solution to Ivory Coast's political crisis, African Union envoy Raila Odinga said Wednesday after the latest attempt to negotiate a deal between the country's rival leaders failed.

Odinga, who is prime minister of Kenya, travelled to Ivory Coast on Monday for a second attempt at convincing defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara - the man the world recognises as the rightful winner of November's presidential election.

Odinga said in a statement that discussions with both men failed to bring a breakthrough.

'With internal tensions and hardships already mounting and bound to escalate amid the destabilizing uncertainty about the future, time is running out for an amicably negotiated settlement,' he said.

Ivory Coast was plunged into a violent crisis when a Gbagbo ally on the constitutional council overturned electoral commission results handing victory in November's presidential elections to Ouattara.

Almost 250 people have died in the violence, according to the United Nations, and Gbagbo's security forces stand accused of extrajudicial killings and excessive force.

The West African bloc ECOWAS has said it could use force should Gbagbo not step down, and Odinga repeated the threat - although he said he was still hopeful of finding a peaceful resolution.

'No one in Cote d'Ivoire should contemplate the alternative path to resolving this electoral impasse, which would require additional punishing economic and financial sanctions, and possibly the use of force that both the African Union and ECOWAS have set as their last resort,' he said.

Gbagbo and his allies are also resisting travel bans and asset freezes from the United States and Britain, as well as cuts to aid from development banks.

November's elections were supposed to open a more positive chapter in Ivory Coast's history eight years after civil war split the world's biggest cocoa producer into the mainly Muslim north, which backs Ouattara, and the Christian south, where Gbagbo holds sway.

Instead they raised fears of a return to war, prompting tens of thousands of Ivorians to flee the country.

Tensions are growing and United Nations peacekeepers are coming under increasing attack after defying Gbabgo's order to leave the country.

The UN Security Council is Wednesday expected to approve sending an extra 2,000 peacekeepers, bringing the strength of the force close to 12,000.