African church leaders offer to help end impasse in Ivory Coast

(February 25, 2011) Africa’s Christian Churches are trying to mediate between the two claimants to the presidency of Ivory Coast to break the stalemate over a violently disputed November election that was meant to bring peace. The United Nations-certified results showed Alassane Ouattara won that vote, but incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has refused to concede and the conflict appears to be entering a new phase, as open street combat between supporters of the two sides is flaring up in Abidjan and spreading to the west. Last week Cardinal Theodore-Adrien Sarr of Dakar, Senegal, led a delegation of an umbrella body of African religious leaders, including the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, known as SECAM, the All African Conference of Churches and the Africa Council of Religious Leaders, to talk to the two sides and help break the stalemate over the country's disputed presidential election. The religious delegation called for a peaceful and lasting solution to the political crisis, particularly urging the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ivory Coast and other religious bodies to play a prophetic role in the mediation process.