Yamoussoukro — Diplomatic restraint would be the description most fitting the faces of frustrated West African mediators who, after a second delay, failed to get the Cote d'Ivoire government to sign a ceasefire on Saturday.
The mediators had initially planned for the deal to be signed on Friday, after securing a ceasefire agreement in theory from both sides. Reports said the ministerial team was planning to meet Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo on Sunday, after consulting their own respective leaders on how to proceed.
AllAfrica was told the West African mediation delegation was gathering Sunday, at their hotel in the main city Abidjan, to discuss their options. The goal is to find a solution that would stop the peace efforts from unraveling in Cote d'Ivoire, a week after an emergency heads of state summit on the crisis across the border in Ghana and more than two weeks after a failed coup. But the indications are not hopeful.
"No, we're not angry, but yes we are disappointed and frustrated," the Malian Foreign Minister, Lassana Traore, told an impromptu news conference, as the ministers prepared to leave the airport in Cote d'Ivoire's official capital, Yamoussoukro, on Saturday afternoon, without a ceasefire agreement. They had waited six hours in the city.
Speaking on behalf of six foreign and two defence ministers, Traore said the last they had heard from the government was that the mandate necessary for the signature on its behalf was on its way to Yamoussoukro by helicopter, "but as you see it hasn't arrived". Traore added "We had no difficulty on the rebel side. They were ready to sign".
So it is now up to the Ivorian government to decide whether or not it is indeed prepared to ceasefire with the rebels. Gbagbo's administration appears to be deeply hesitant, judging from the main evening national television news on Saturday night. The tone was tough, and the talk was more of war than peace and a ceasefire, suggesting a preference for all-out battle against the dissident troops who control the north and centre of the country.
The news bulletin reported, at length, a pro-government rally held in Abidjan, Saturday, quoting Ivorians urging the armed forces to advance and crush the insurgents. There was no mention of a larger and noisier pro-rebel demonstration the other side of the front line.
Endless television reports featured different patriotic groups around the country pledging large sums of money to the war chest and to loyalist forces. This followed public televised ministerial and senior government financial donations to the army on Wednesday.
There were also images of grieving soldiers' widows and interviews with troops injured in the fighting. These pictures were capped with warlike language from the speaker of the National Assembly, Mamadou Koulibaly. He told marchers to prepare "to use your bare hands to take back Bouake," Cote d'Ivoire's second city, which remains in rebel hands.
"Why make an illegal rebellion legitimate?" asked one pro-Gbagbo protestor, angry at any suggestion that the rebels be given formal recognition or that his country be officially partitioned into rebel-held centre and north and government-controlled south. "No, we must not agree to a ceasefire. We will take up arms and take the traitors on, right to the last Ivorian man and woman. We stand behind our government".
The state's highly visible and determined supporters are whipping up anti-rebel passions and repeating the much-asked and still unanswered questions, 'who is behind them?' and 'with whom would the government be signing a ceasefire?" With the mood clearly hostile to the rebels among a vocal percentage of the Ivorian population, the authorities may have decided to proceed gingerly, testing the waters before going ahead with signing a ceasefire.
Provisional agreement for a ceasefire came from the authorities on Wednesday. So the ministers from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) boarded French military aircraft and headed up to rebel territory in Bouake, to seek their agreement, which they got.
On Friday, a scheduled signing ceremony between the Ivorian authorities and rebels in the capital Yamoussoukro did not take place. Twenty-four hours after a ceasefire was due to be signed, West African mediators were still waiting, standing by to facilitate the deal.
The second ceremony, planned for Saturday, was to be held close to the front line between loyalist and government troops in the town of Tiebissou - 42km (26 miles) north of Yamoussoukro and 64 km (40 miles) south of Bouake.
But the Ivorian authorities failed to dispatch the all-important mandate, giving the necessary authority for the ceasefire to be signed on their behalf. The signatory was to be Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe Mangou, the commander in charge of loyalist forces defending what has become a virtual war zone in central Cote d'Ivoire
On the rebels' side, the representative mandated to sign for the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire - the name they gave themselves on Tuesday -- was Adjutant Tuo Fozie, in a draft copy of the ceasefire agreement seen by AllAfrica.
Fozie has emerged as the main rebel spokesman in Bouake and was one of 6 dissident soldiers who met the West African mediation mission on Thursday in the city.
Ghana's Defence Minister, Kwame Addo-Kufuor described the second ceasefire signing delay Saturday as "foot-dragging" by the Ivorian government. The Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, said he felt Saturday had been "a waste of time, I must be very frank".
But, he added, "I am not angry, I am disappointed. This is how it goes. It is a very difficult situation. We are going to try to our level best to sort it out". Owusu-Agyemang said he was confident that the Ivorian government would eventually come up with the missing mandate, without which there is no ceasefire agreement.
After another late night of meetings, on Sunday morning the Ecowas executive secretary, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said: "We are working to get a ceasefire. We have to give it our best shot".
The draft truce document stipulated that both government and rebel soldiers would maintain their current positions, while negotiations continued to try to end the conflict. The ceasefire would be monitored by a committee that included representatives from the rival sides.
But there is considerable Ivorian government and popular resistance to rebel demands that they be granted amnesty and reintegrated into the security forces and that the army commander and the defence minister resign. Disgruntled soldiers are said to have staged what was initially taken for a mutiny, but has ballooned into much more than a violent military revolt, in which hundreds have been killed.
President Gbagbo also appears suspicious of the prospect of regional military intervention in Cote d'Ivoire, which the West African summit pledged to undertake if peaceful mediation fails. And the Ivorian leader may now feel more confident that his troops can rout the rebels, because of considerable French military logistical support.
The insurgents from the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire have said the French army presence is blocking their advance south, towards the economic metropolis Abidjan, which is also the seat of government.
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All day Friday, ministers from six member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) held emergency talks to try to clear these doubts, and what were described as last minute hitches, blocking the signing of the ceasefire accord in the political capital, Yamoussoukro, the same day.
But, as the 20h00h, local time (and GMT), curfew approached in Abidjan on Friday, a message was sent to journalists waiting in the lobby of the city's swankiest hotel to head home and report at 08h00 on Saturday morning. The West African ministers continued their talks with the Ivorian foreign minister, Abou Drahamane Sangare, in the crisis committee room on the 23rd floor, until late that night.
Saturday proved as frustrating as Friday. The regional ministers gathered at Abidjan airport first thing in the morning - this time accompanied by the Ivorian foreign minister. All but Sangare boarded a French military C160 Transall transport plane, again heading for Yamoussoukro.
Perhaps the West African mediation team should have guessed then that they would again be kept waiting by the Ivorians, but they seemed genuinely hopeful at the time. By Saturday night, as they flew back to Abidjan, they were still philosophical, saying that if the delays meant ultimate peace for Cote d'Ivoire, and the region, so be it.
But behind the diplomatic etiquette and niceties, there must now be growing concern and realisation within the West African community that trying to broker a peace deal in Cote d'Ivoire may not take a matter of days, it may last weeks or even months. The other worrying option is that, meanwhile, the stalemate will end and the bloody conflict will intensify, threatening the stability of the whole of the subregion.
