ABIDJAN – Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo on Sunday appeared bent on clinging to power, warning West African leaders any attempt to oust him could ruin the regional economy and trigger civil war.
On Tuesday, three West African presidents will visit Abidjan in a bid to convince the defiant 65-year-old leader to step down, a last-ditch plea that comes backed by a threat of military intervention. But Gbagbo, who claims to have won last month’s presidential election, is in no mood to stand aside for his long-time rival Alassane Ouattara,
who has been recognised as the victor by UN vote monitors and world powers.
Several international leaders, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, have warned Gbagbo’s stubbornness could plunge Ivory Coast back into civil war.
But Gbagbo’s supporters turned the warning around, claiming instead that it is the threat of military action by the West African bloc ECOWAS that poses the greater risk of mass civilian casualties and a regional conflagration.
The regime’s spokesman Ahoua Don Mello branded the West African move a “Western plot directed by France” and warned that military action could put millions of regional immigrants in Ivory Coast in danger.
“The people of Ivory Coast will mobilise.
This boosts our patriotism. This strengthens our faith in Ivorian nationalism,” said Don Mello, who serves as minister for infrastructure and sanitation in Gbabgo’s government.
“We’re always open to dialogue, but within strict respect of the laws and regulations of the Republic of Ivory Coast,” he said. Gbagbo’s camp regards him as the lawful and duly-elected president on the country.
Gbagbo’s spokesman said he did “not believe at all” that it would come to a fight, in particular because there are millions of West African immigrants who work in Ivory Coast’s relatively prosperous cocoa-led economy.
“Ivory Coast is a country of immigration,” he said. “All these countries have citizens in Ivory Coast, and they know if they attack Ivory Coast from the exterior it would become an interior civil war,” he warned. “Is Burkina Faso ready to welcome three million Burkinabe migrants back in their country of origin?” he demanded, in what some observers saw as a tacit threat that immigrant workers could be targeted in reprisal. Despite a decade of crisis, Ivory Coast remains a significant economy.
It exports more than a third of the world’s supply of cocoa, has a small but promising oil production sector and operates two major ports.
Millions of immigrants from poorer West African countries have come looking for jobs, and in previous crises such as the riots of 2004 they have found themselves targeted for attack by mobs of Ivorian “patriot” youths.
Gbagbo has brushed off sanctions on its members by the United States and the European Union, but the tough stance taken by its neighbours has touched a raw nerve, and undermined his claim to be fighting Western colonialism.
