ABIDJAN – The African Union chief, Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, is due in the Ivory Coast to meet rivals both claiming the presidency, a diplomat said, in another bid to end the impasse.
Mutharika is expected in Abidjan for talks with Alassane Ouattara, who is the internationally recognised winner of November 28 elections, and Laurent Gbagbo, who has resisted demands to step down. He “is coming to see the two presidents,” the African diplomat told AFP without giving details.
The 53-nation African Union has already sent envoys to the Ivory Coast to end the standoff by persuading Gbagbo to cede power, but without success, and there are fears the tensions could escalate into civil war. Mutharika’s trip comes ahead of a January 29-31 summit of the pan-African body in Addis Ababa.
A separate West African body, ECOWAS, has threatened military intervention to force Gbagbo to leave after its envoys also failed to make him budge. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) envoys would travel to the United States to meet President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia said Tuesday.
Post-election violence has left 260 people dead in the Ivory Coast, while about 29,000 have fled into neighbouring Liberia.
