AU envoy warns of civil war in Ivory Coast, calls for action

Jan 28, 2011, 20:55 GMT

Addis Ababa - Ivory Coast stands on the brink of a civil war that the African Union must lead the way in heading off, the mediator in the crisis, Raila Odinga, told a meeting of the 53-nation bloc in Addis Ababa Friday.

'Given its (Ivory Coast's) long history of strife and civil war and with the preparations for armed conflict underway on both sides, a small spark could ignite a major conflagration which would also threaten the regions stability,' the Kenyan premier told a special meeting on Ivory Coast ahead of a heads-of-state summit.

'Inaction in face of this growing crisis would further imperil peace and security in Cote dIvoire,' he added.

November's presidential election was supposed to open a more positive chapter in Ivory Coast's history, eight years after a civil war split the nation into the mainly Muslim north and the Christian south.

Instead, the West African nation was plunged into a violent crisis when incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who has support in the south, refused to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, the man the electoral commission declared the winner, who gets his backing from the north.

A Gbagbo ally on the constitutional council overturned the result, sparking unrest, condemnation and months of increasingly frantic international pressure aimed at removing the defiant leader.

Over 270 people have died in the crisis, according to the United Nations, and Gbagbo's security forces stand accused of extrajudicial killings and excessive force.

The AU, which has suspended the West African nation, is not expected to endorse the use of force to oust Gbagbo at the meeting, as the continent's leaders seem to be backing down from earlier tough language.

West African bloc ECOWAS had threatened to send in troops to the world's largest cocoa producer to remove Gbagbo, but as the leader continues to cling to power with the backing of the army, talk has turned to finding a peaceful solution.

'It is therefore vital that we in the African Union lead the way in immediately mobilizing national, regional and international action to find a peaceful end to the crisis on the basis of resolutions already opted by the African Union and ECOWAS,' Odinga told the meeting.