Mbeki, Bassole head to Ivory Coast amid political turmoil

December 4, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – Despite having a full plate with tasks at hand, Sudan’s top African mediators are heading to Ivory Coast after presidential elections there created major dispute over who won.

Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo was sworn-in as Ivory Coast president on Saturday, despite the electoral commission declaring his rival, Alassane Ouattara, winner of a November 28 poll.

The United States, European Union (EU), Canada and United Nations Secretary General have all congratulated Ouattara and called on Gbagbo to respect the will of the people.

Today the African Union (AU) asked former South African president Thabo Mbeki to head to Abidjan and mediate between the two sides in order to avoid escalation of the highly explosive situation.

Speaking in Addis Abba on Saturday, the AU commission president Jean Ping said that Mbeki, who heads an AU panel on Sudan, will meet the two political camps to find a peaceful solution to the contested election results.

The former South African president is currently awaiting responses from leaders in North and South Sudan to his proposal to end deadlock over the oil-rich region of Abyei which was supposed to have a referendum next month to determine whether they want to be part of the North or join the South should it decide to secede.

The Muslim north and mostly Christian and animist south agreed in 2005 to hold the referendum as part of the peace accord that ended a 22-year civil war in Sudan, Africa’s largest country. The people of south Sudan must choose between secession or staying united with the north.

Both sides have yet to agree on post-referendum arrangements such as wealth sharing, citizenship, national debt and border demarcation.

Mbeki was appointed in 2009 to implement recommendations made by his team on Darfur which aims at achieving a comprehensive solution to the seven-year conflict.

However, the former South African politician has shifted his focus away from Darfur and sought to mediate between the North and South. He has previously made a failed attempt to bring the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and opposition parties together before April’s elections.

Sudan Tribune has learnt that the joint AU-UN chief mediator Dijibril Bassole will fly to Abidjan for the same purpose though it is not clear who has dispatched him for this mission.

In 2007, Bassole who was Burkina Faso’s Minister for National Security helped broker the Ouagadougou Agreement between Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro leader of the New Force who became Prime minister.

There have been reports that Mbeki, backed by AU chairman Ping, was pressing hard to take the Darfur dossier away from Bassole. Sources say that relations between the two men remain frosty as a result of the behind-the-scene competition.

(ST)