October 18, 2006
African heads of state have recommended that Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo stay in office for another year until the country can hold elections.
The eight leaders also said that Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny should be given more power, including control over the armed forces. The rebels seized the north of the country in 2002, accusing Mr Gbagbo of discriminating against northerners. Polls this month were delayed with militias and rebels still not disarmed.
Speaking as African Union chairman, Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso told reporters in Addis Ababa after the meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council, that the additional transition period "should not exceed a period of 12 months". The BBC's James Copnall in Abidjan says that last year, when the exact same situation arose, the United Nations kept President Gbagbo in office and named Mr Banny as prime minister.
Pressure
But over the past 12 months little progress has been made, he says, and while the recommendations made by the AU seem on the surface to echo the decisions of a year ago in fact the international community appears to have decided that President Gbagbo is the biggest obstacle to free and fair elections.
This year Mr Gbagbo's supporters attacked the UN in January and in July they forcibly stopped public hearings to give identity documents to the millions of Ivorians without them. So the AU has recommended Mr Banny be explicitly given control over the armed forces and the government is to be able to take decisions by decree.
In addition, the South African head of state, Thabo Mbeki, who is seen as a supporter of his Ivorian counterpart, has been removed from his role as the mediator in the crisis. This is not good news for President Gbagbo, our reporter says. The UN Security Council will have the final say in a week but it is likely to adopt the AU recommendations wholesale.
Our reporter says it remains unclear though how such a controversial decision could be imposed as President Gbagbo will certainly not like being sidelined. If the UN does follow the Africans' lead, everyone will be watching very closely to see how President Gbagbo and his supporters react, he says.
African Union's Communique of the 64th Meeting of the Peace and Security Council
More Information on Ivory Coast
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