Ivory Coast on verge of war

“Ivory Coast is on the verge of a new civil war. This tragedy can only be avoided if Africans and the wider international community stand firm behind the democratically elected president, Alassane Ouattara, and he launches an initiative for reconciliation and a transitional government of national unity”, says Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa Senior Analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Thousands of young supporters of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo yesterday answered a call to join the army. Around 400 Ivoirians have died and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since a dispute over a Nov. 28 election that has since escalated into open conflict, with daily gun battles and heavy weapons fire in Abidjan.

Depagne says “The requirements to avoid a disastrous new conflict include Gbagbo stepping down; Ouattara offering to negotiate, with civil society help, an agreement for unity, national reconciliation and an interim transitional government with him at its head (but without the irreconcilable former president); the UN peacekeeping mission standing firm to carry out its civilian protection mandate; and the international community unequivocally supporting any decisions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including deployment of a military mission”. Listen to his full interview with Emer McCarthy: