Côte d’Ivoire
4 January 2011
ECOWAS and the AU indicated that Gbagbo had “agreed to negotiate a peaceful end to the crisis without any preconditions”.
3 January 2011
ECOWAS mediators (Presidents of Benin, Cape Verde and Sierra Leone) undertook a second visit to Abidjan to negotiate Gbagbo’s exit from power. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, representing the AU also joined in the negotiations. The ECOWAS mediators subsequently indicated that Gbagbo had promised to lift the blockade of the (UN and New Forces soldiers protected) temporary headquarters of Ouattara at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan. Odinga subsequently told the BBC that Gbagbo had indicated that he was “ready to negotiate without any conditions. And stepping aside is the main option that we gave him.”
31 December 2010
British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said the UK will support military intervention in principle (in Côte d’Ivoire), but such action would need prior endorsement by the Security Council.
