Disagreement over the outcome of last month’s presidential election in Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa grower, has raised the risk of renewed violence in the country.
Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo was sworn in as president last week even though Ivory Coast’s electoral commission had declared Alassane Ouattara the winner of the Nov. 28 election.
Leaders from countries including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia and Senegal arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja for a meeting of the 15-nation ECOWAS, a regional body which has declared support for Ouattara.
“This is an opportunity for heads of state to pool their collective wisdom to see how they can advance the process ... There are many options,” said ECOWAS spokesman Sunny Ugoh.
The streets of the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan hummed with traffic as normal on Tuesday but diplomats said the local United Nations mission was considering evacuating non-essential staff as security became more uncertain.
Cocoa futures in London hit new highs on fears of disruptions to world supplies, with the second-month futures contract
South African president Thabo Mbeki ended a mediation mission to Ivory Coast on Monday after failing to break the deadlock. One source from an ECOWAS country said Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore would now step up his role.
“He has been involved in the process for some time now and it is expected that he will lead the ECOWAS mandate to restore peace and stability in that country,” the source.
Compaore played a role in brokering a 2007 power-sharing agreement between Gbagbo and rebels that still hold the north.
The dispute risks pitting the pro-Gbagbo military against pro-Ouattara rebels. Ivory Coast’s neighbors fear unrest could block trade routes and prompt a refugee crisis in a region still recovering from three civil wars in the past two decades.
The United Nations, United States, former colonial power France, the European Union, the African Union and ECOWAS have all rejected Gbagbo’s proclaimed election victory but he has control of the army and state television.
The political deadlock gripped what was once the economic jewel in the crown of francophone West Africa after the Constitutional Council — run by a Gbagbo ally — scrapped hundreds of thousands of votes from Ouattara strongholds, reversing provisional results giving him a victory.
Gbagbo has scorned the international rejection as an affront to Ivorian sovereignty and has threatened to expel the UN Ivory Coast envoy for interference in internal affairs.
