Ethopia, February 01: African leaders have set a one-month deadline for resolving Ivory Coast’s political crisis as they wrap up a two-day African summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The African Union (AU) appointed on Monday a five-member panel of heads of states tasked with finding a solution to the leadership crisis in Ivory Coast within a month, AFP reported.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz will head the panel, which also includes his counterparts from Burkina Faso, Chad, South Africa and Tanzania.
Since the disputed November 28 presidential polls, Ivory Coast has been locked in a crippling power struggle between incumbent strongman Laurent Gbagbo and his electoral rival Alassane Ouattara, who has the internationally recognized as the winner of the election.
The two-day African Union summit was dominated by the continent’s latest crises including the uprising in Egypt and the popular revolution in Tunisia that ended the 23-year regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Several rounds of negotiations have already been carried out in vain between Gbagbo and envoys from the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to persuade him to peacefully step down.
The ECOWAS has frequently threatened to resort to force against Gbagbo if talks fail to yield any result, but some diplomats have raised doubts about the capabilities of the 15-nation body in conducting a military intervention.
Gbagbo has warned that any military action against him could push the West African country to another civil war.
According to the United Nations, post-election violence has already left at least 260 people dead while about 29,000 have fled into neighboring Liberia.
——-Agencies