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Renewed clashes hurt peace prospects

Country Map - Cote d'Ivoire (Yamoussoukro) National Democratic Institute
The government is still trying to free Bouake and Korhogo from the hands of mutineers
Prospects for a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Cote d’Ivoire’s government and insurgents see-sawed this week, a month after negotiations brokered by Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema started. The government mediation team rejected proposals made by the rebels, who occupy the northern and central part of the country, in response to a draft peace agreement presented earlier by the mediators. The new proposals included the organisation of fresh elections, and the installation of a transitional government with a mandate to organise new elections. Hopes for progress in the negotiations, stalled for about two weeks, had risen on Wednesday with the arrival in West Africa of French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who said his visit was meant to invigorate the talks. Meetings between de Villepin, the two parties and Eyadema yielded a communique which noted that the two sides had "agreed that the suffering of the Ivorian people should be ended quickly, which implied a return to normal social and economic life and thus to the peace". The two delegations noted their agreement "on the need to resolve the central negotiation points," according to the communique, read to the press by the Togolese Foreign Minister Koffi Panou. These included issues relating to nationality, a 1998 land law, the voter's list, the implementation of the resolutions of a national reconciliation forum held to resolve the tensions that had arisen around presidential and legislative elections in 2000, guarantees by the international community and disarmament. "On these bases the two delegations said they were convinced of the possibility of signing very quickly a detailed agreement, under the aegis of the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States Contact Group," according to the communique. Eyadema chairs the group, set up to mediate between Cote d'Ivoire's belligerents. De Villepin travelled on Wednesday to Abidjan, where he had talks with President Laurent Gbagbo. He later announced to the media that opposition leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara had left the residence of the French ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire - where he had sought refuge since 19 September, when the insurgency started. Ouattara, whom pro-government sectors have accused of being behind the insurgency, travelled to Gabon, according to media reports. In Cote d’Ivoire, there were reports of fighting in the west between loyalist forces and insurgents. On Wednesday, the Ivorian military accused the insurgents of attacking its positions in the west, a claim denied by the insurgents. On Thursday, the military went on an offensive around rebel-held Vavoua, some 450 km northwest of the Ivorian commercial capital, Abidjan. However a new rebel group calling itself the Mouvement populaire du Grand Ouest (Popular Movement of the Great West) attacked the town of Danane, 600 km northwest of Abidjan, near the border with Liberia. Armed men also attacked Man, another border town north of Danane. The Great West - centre-west and southwest Cote d'Ivoire - includes one of the main cocoagrowing areas in the country. It is also the area from which former president General Robert Guei, came. Guei was killed by loyalist soldiers at the start of the mutiny. "These attacks do not seem fortuitous," Gbagbo said on television on Thursday, adding that the attackers had seized the opportunity to manifest their discontent. He accused the attackers of "invading the cocoa zone to hurt the economy" and gave the armed forces up to Friday to flush them out. Security was tightened up in Abidjan and at the airport on Thursday. The authorities also announced the extension to Monday 2 December of a curfew that begins each day at 19:00 GMT/local time and ends at 06:00 GMT/local.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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