Annan, African leaders meet on Darfur, Ivory Coast war

ACCRA, Ghana, July 29, 2004 (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gathered with top Africa leaders in his native Ghana Thursday to seek “African solutions” to the continent’s crises including alleged ethnic cleansing in western Sudan .

Annan was expected to try to keep much of the focus on Darfur, Sudan , where Arab militias allegedly backed by the Sudan government are accused of killing and driving out tens of thousands of non-Arab villagers.

African presidents opened the two-day summit Thursday in Accra, Ghana on a different problem – Ivory Coast, where northern rebels and fiercely loyalist southerners continue to split the cocoa-rich country, ignoring a never-implemented 2003 power-sharing deal.

The Accra talks “will seek…ways of getting the reconciliation process back on track” in Ivory Coast, summit host President John Kufuor of Ghana said in a statement.

The gathering drew together all sides in Ivory Coast’s conflict – rebel leaders, opposition figures, and President Laurent Gbagbo.

Ivory Coast is the world’s leading cocoa producer, and for decades was an economic and political anchor in turbulent West Africa.

A 1999 coup threw the country into crisis, however, and civil war followed three years later.

While peace accords and the world’s largest deployments of U.N. troops have ended conflicts in neighboring countries, Ivory Coast’s power-share accord has yet to be carried out, keeping the country a dangerous flashpoint in a volatile region.

“I hope they will come with open minds, determined to solve this issue … that they will rise above individual interests and desire for power and put their nation first,” Annan said of Ivory Coast’s rival sides late Wednesday, after pre-talks meetings with Kufuor and others.

“Without that spirit, there will be no progress,” Annan said.

African presidents in attendance Thursday include top leaders Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, plus Omar Bongo of Gabon, Matthieu Kerekou of Benin, and Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali.