Accra, Ghana — Cote dIvoires feuding factions took one step forward at crisis talks in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, and agreed on Saturday to the formation of a national unity government of reconciliation, headed by the new prime minister, Seydou Diarra.
Diarra had been battling for almost six weeks, since his appointment at peace talks in Paris, to bring all the rival parties into a consensus cabinet. But he met resistance from Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbos Popular Front Party (FPI) and from the main rebel Patriotic Movement of Cote dIvoire (MPCI).
A relieved Ivorian prime minister, who threatened to resign on Monday if he failed to form a government by next week, told reporters Saturday he was ready to get straight to work to bring peace back to Cote dIvoire. "Dont think Ive just been sitting at home for the past six weeks," said Diarra. "We have been planning and have been hard at work."
After a marathon two days and two nights of negotiations in Accra chaired by the hosts, Ghana - currently heading the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) - the Ivorians agreed to set up a new all-party government by March 14.
The main hurdle to date - designating the key portfolios of defence and interior - was finally resolved Saturday after a further delay in the early hours.
The MPCI had compromised on its demand for the two ministries. But agreement by all delegations to temporarily substitute the defence and interior ministries with an all-party National Security Council was initially vetoed by Gbagbos FPI, which threw up objections at the last minute. It took another 24 hours, and the considerable powers of persuasion of the West African mediators, to bring the reluctant former governing party around.
Fighting worsens
Meanwhile, back in Cote d'Ivoire there were reports on Saturday of more skirmishes in western Cote dIvoire, a volatile war zone near the Liberian border partly controlled by Ivorian rebels and liberally peppered with Liberian mercenaries who have been reported as working at different times for both Ivorian rebels and the Ivorian government forces.
French troops, currently monitoring ceasefire lines between the Gbagbo authorities and the rebels, reported that they had pushed back attacks by groups of rebels, hours after the rival Ivorian factions signed the Accra deal.
Reuters reported automatic gunfire west of the town of Guessabo early on Saturday, quoting the French army as saying that the rebels tried to "punch through" onto the main highway leading west from Duekoue towards the main cocoa-producing town of Daloa.
"They were everywhere. It was not big groups - 15 here, 15 there. We succeeded in making them leave," Colonel Emmanuel Morin, commander of French forces in the west, told Reuters. French reinforcements were dispatched toward the western front later Saturday.
Now dubbed the "Wild West", the stretch of Cote dIvoire bordering Liberia in the west is becoming increasingly lawless and impossible to police. There are reports of rebel activity on both sides of the frontier and unconfirmed information of ethnic clashes between the Yacouba and the Guere in Cote dIvoire. Both tribes straddle the border and are known respectively as the Gio and Krahn across the border in eastern Liberia.
The fighting near Guessabo on Saturday was reportedly preceded by clashes on Friday night in the town of Bangolo.
In Bangolo, a Liberian force said to be based in Cote dIvoire reportedly attacked rebel positions. Reuters quoted witnesses saying the Liberian Lima Force worked closely with the Ivorian army, a claim denied by the Abidjan authorities on Saturday.
A rebel commander told Reuters that Fridays attack had prompted the rebels' reprisal raids on Saturday.
But the army spokesman, Jules Yao Yao, said the raid on Bangolo had nothing to do with the security forces and appealed to the international community to sort out the anarchic confusion in the west.
"We must, above all, stop what is starting to look like the shifting of Liberias own conflict onto Ivorian territory and the risk of tribal war," said Yao Yao.
Next steps
The upsurge of fighting in Cote dIvoire cast a pall over the breakthrough compromise deal reached in Ghana.
The Accra negotiations brought together the 10 factions, who were party to the Paris accord reached at Linas-Marcoussis, near Paris, early this year. But after the initial breakthrough, a dispute over the allocation of the defence and interior posts stalled the implementation of the accord for more than a month.
Now that some of the obstacles have been lifted, the seven Ivorian political parties and three rebel groups will share all the posts, making up the new reconciliation government.
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"Let us now harp more on what can bring us together than what can divide us," host Ghanaian foreign minister, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang said at the conference centre in one of Accras leading hotels.
The agreement in Ghana now needs Gbagbos blessing. The Ivorian leader has said in the past that he intends to have the last word on all cabinet appointments.
In an interview Saturday with the French newspaper, Le Parisien, Gbagbo is quoted as saying that he considered the Marcoussis Accord a "bitter remedy", adding: "Its a bit like medicine I was forced to drink as a child. I found it bitter. But they tell you itll cure you, so you take it."
Ivorian state television said 39 ministries would make up the new consensus cabinet. Ten have been allocated to Gbagbos FPI, seven each to the two main opposition parties and seven to the rebels.
For now, the main stumbling blocks - the security portfolios - will be merged into a new National Security Council, made up of 15 members. The affairs of the council will be managed by one representative from each of the 10 signatories, and one each from the armed forces, the paramilitary gendarmerie and the police - as well as President Gbagbo and Prime Minister Diarra.
