IVORY COAST: International mediators put pressure on Ivory Coast's leaders yesterday to get a battered peace process back on track after four days of riots that showed President Laurent Gbagbo was resisting moves to curb his power.
Militant "Young Patriot" supporters of Mr Gbagbo brought chaos to the government-controlled south of the west African cocoa producer this week by attacking UN peacekeeping bases, vehicles and personnel with stones and petrol bombs.
The attacks, which also targeted French peacekeepers, drew sharp international condemnation and a threat - not yet enforced - of UN sanctions against the instigators.
The protests, which government security forces allowed to rage on unhindered, only halted after Mr Gbagbo and allied youth leaders instructed supporters to end them.
Nearly 7,000 UN troops and around 4,000 French soldiers have been enforcing a fragile peace in Ivory Coast, which was split by a 2002 civil war. Rebels occupy the northern half.
Economic capital Abidjan and other towns were getting back to normal yesterday after the riots, which temporarily disrupted the country's vital cocoa exports.
International mediators, which include the UN and the African Union, urged government and rebel leaders to get on with implementing a long-delayed UN peace plan that foresees disarmament, reunification and elections by the end of October.
"I appeal to all sides to have confidence in their regional economic community, in the African Union, and in the international community, whose role is to accompany them so their country returns to peace and prosperity," the head of the AU commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, said in Khartoum. He was addressing African foreign ministers meeting before an AU summit in the Sudanese capital on Monday.
"I think the peace process should soon be back on track, hopefully with everyone involved," Margherita Amodeo, spokeswoman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast said.
Mr Gbagbo's ruling FPI party withdrew from the process on Tuesday but its president, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, said yesterday it would consider returning.
In this week's violence, at least four protesters were shot dead by Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers when government supporters stormed their western base.