Obasango leaves Ivory Coast after mediating

(AFP) – 1 hour ago

ABIDJAN — Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo left Ivory Coast on Monday after two days mediating the crisis pitting embattled strongman Laurent Gbagbo against his internationally recognised rival.

Obasanjo "left this morning," a Nigerian diplomatic source told AFP, after a discreet mission aimed at resolving the increasingly tense stand-off that has gripped the west African nation since a November 28 presidential vote.

He was the latest regional leader to try to bridge the yawning gap between Gbagbo and the man deemed to have won the vote, Alassane Ouattara. West African bloc ECOWAS has said it could use force to get rid of Gbagbo if talks fail.

The former Nigerian leader was sent by the current head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, an African diplomatic source said.

Obasanjo explained to Gbagbo "the inevitability of the change over of power" for Ivory Coast's head of state, and expressed "Africa's determination to achieve this objective", the African source added.

Obasanjo expressed to Ouattara "the international community's strong support" and its attachment to "respecting the results" of the election, "as announced by the Independent Electoral Commission".

The commission proclaimed Ouattara the winner of the vote, while the Constitutional Council alleged vote irregularities and said Gbagbo had won.

Gbagbo's foreign minister, Alcide Djedje, said Obasanjo was "prospecting... unofficially".

The United Nations and virtually all of the international community have said that Ouattara is the west African nation's president.

The latest bid by three ECOWAS heads of state and the African Union to mediate the crisis that has seen at least 210 people killed floundered last week. The bloc has said it will soon send another mission to Abidjan.

Ouattara is protected at the besieged Golf Hotel by around 800 UN peacekeepers as well as the ex-rebel New Forces allied with his camp since troops shot dead several of his supporters on December 16.