Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny called late on Wednesday for their compatriots to end the street violence which has brought chaos to Abidjan and go back to work.
Following emergency talks with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the leaders called on the people “to withdraw from the streets and to go back home. The President of the Republic of Ivory Coast and the Prime Minister invite the people… to go back to work tomorrow, the 19th of January,” in a joint statement.
The statement added that Gbagbo and Konan Banny had been “invited” to continue with talks aimed at reaching a political solution to the crisis “in the coming days”.
It was the first time that the two Ivorian leaders had made such a statement since the crisis began on Monday.
Earlier on Wednesday, clashes between supporters of Gbagbo and United Nations peacekeepers saw a renewed bid to storm the UN base in Abidjan and the killing of four Côte d’Ivoire citizens in the west.
Between 2 000 and 3 000 nationalist Young Patriots made two attempts to break into the UN premises in the commercial capital, where they were driven off with tear gas and warning shots, like the previous day.
The militants, who have halted city life for three days with angry protests at an international move to scrap the Côte d’Ivoire Parliament, used petrol bombs and managed to set fire to the big entrance to the compound, blackening the familiar pale-blue UN paintwork.
Demonstrators ripped down the barbed wire round the UN base, one made a hole in the concrete wall with a hammer and a group of self-named “Kamikazes” with black-daubed faces sang their national anthem and threw petrol bombs, one landing on the roof of a UN building, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said.
French peacekeeping troops were brought in by helicopter but fired no shots, a French military spokesperson said.
In the west, a border region notorious for unrest, Bangladeshi UN troops battled youths who attacked military camps at Guiglo and Duekoue.
The solution thrashed out with Obasanjo will be communicated to the International Working Group, which is monitoring the Côte d’Ivoire peace process.
In New York, the UN Security Council mulled a tough response including sanctions against individuals trying to thwart the peace process.
Augustine Mahiga of Tanzania, the council president for January, said there was “great concern” among members and a panel of experts was putting the final touch on a presidential statement expected to be adopted on Thursday.
France, the former colonial power in Côte d’Ivoire, hopes the unrest can be calmed through negotiations, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in Berlin. – Sapa-AFP