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Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara and his main rival Henri Konan Bedie pledged to fight for peace on Wednesday, reporting progress in long-awaited talks over an electoral crisis that has claimed dozens of lives.
“It was a first meeting to break the ice and restore confidence,” said Ouattara, while Bedie said: “We have been able to break the wall of ice and the wall of silence.”
The two men, who met for about 40 minutes at a luxury hotel in Abidjan, told reporters in brief comments that more meetings would take place.
“We are going to keep calling each other in the coming days and weeks and come together to bring the country back to what it was,” Bedie said.
Ouattara said: “Peace is dearest to both of us and to all Ivorians, and we have decided to fight for it.”
Their talks are the first since the October 31 presidential election resulted in a bitter showdown, fueling fears that West Africa’s largest French-speaking economy could plunge into civil conflict once again.
Ouattara was declared the winner with more than 94 percent of the votes. But the election was rejected by the opposition, which accused him of violating the country’s two-term presidential limits.
Deadly violence, often tinged by ethnic rivalry, erupted in August after Ouattara announced his candidacy for a third term in office, arguing that a 2016 constitution revision reset the counter term to zero.
Communications Minister Sidi Tiemoko Touré told reporters that the official figure now stands at 85 dead and 484 injured, many of them in the southeast of the country.
The aftermath of the violence in the city of Toumodi, in central Ivory Coast. The sign reads: ‘Toumodi youth, you burn down shops, restaurants, markets … tomorrow, how do we manage?’ By SIA KAMBOU (AFP) Of the deaths, 34 occurred before the election, 20 on voting day and 31 after.
Toure added that 225 people were arrested, of whom 45 were in custody and 167 were charged.
The opposition has refused to recognize the election results, launched what it calls a campaign of civil disobedience, and vowed to establish a transitional government to replace Ouattara.
Traumatic memories
Several opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, an opposition spokesman, have been arrested and security forces are blocking the homes of others.
For many Ivorians, painful memories have emerged of the aftermath of the disputed 2010 elections.
A political confrontation was followed by a brief civil war in which some 3,000 people died and an estimated 1.3 million people fled their homes.
The head-to-head between Ouattara and Bedie follows a clamor from the UN, the EU, former colonial power France and the neighbors of Côte d’Ivoire for efforts to ease the tension.
The country is the world’s leading cocoa producer and its main city, Abidjan, is a regional commercial center.
More than 8,000 people have left the country to seek refuge in neighboring states, especially Liberia, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.
More than half of them are children, many of whom have arrived unaccompanied or separated from their parents.
Terms
Ouattara, in a speech Monday, proposed a meeting with Bedie, whom he respectfully described as his “elder.”
In its response, Bedie’s PDCI party set several conditions for such talks on Wednesday, including lifting the house blockades and ending legal proceedings against the arrested leaders.
Ivory Coast. By (AFP) The blockade around Bedie’s home had been lifted early Wednesday afternoon, but was still in effect around the home of fellow opposition leader Assoa Adou, Adou told AFP.
Ouattara and Bedie have been central figures in Côte d’Ivoire politics for decades, and each has claimed the mantle of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the very popular first post-independence president.
Their meeting place, the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, has a historical resonance.
It was where Ouattara, as president-elect, set up his headquarters during the 2010-11 crisis, when the acting president, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to resign after being defeated at the polls.
Ouattara’s former allies at the hotel included Bedie, who fell out with Ouattara in 2018.
