Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara was to meet France’s Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday to cement ties between Paris and its ex-colony less than a year after French troops helped oust his predecessor. Ouattara was to meet Sarkozy at 1600 GMT and the French president was to sign a new security agreement with the cocoa-rich West African country. France was a key ally of Ouattara’s after former leader Laurent Gbagbo refused to stand down despite losing a November 2010 presidential election. Around 3,000 people died in the ensuing violence.
A final push to Ivory Coast’s main city Abidjan by pro-Ouattara forces backed by French and UN forces eventually toppled Gbagbo, who was taken prisoner and now faces war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Sources in the French presidency said Paris was looking to promote reconciliation in Ivory Coast after the political crisis. “The situation is better than it was a few months ago, but this is going to be a long process,” one of them said. Sources raised particular concern about a parliamentary election last month that saw Ouattara’s allies secure a vice-like grip on parliament after an election boycotted by Gbagbo’s followers. “It would have been better if Laurent Gbagbo’s supporters were represented. Clearly this is not the best option,” a source said. “But President Ouattara does want to glue the pieces together, he must be given credit.” Tensions in the country linger. At least one person died at the weekend when a meeting in Abidjan of Gbagbo supporters was broken up by people described by some observers as Ouattara supporters. “I want to thank President Sarkozy and his government for the intervention they led in April under a United Nations mandate,” Ouattara said in an interview Thursday with French newspaper Le Monde.
