Côte D’Ivoire: Special Envoy Expresses Optimism in Peace Process

The Burkina Faso peace envoy to the Ivorian crisis on Wednesday reassured Ivorians and the international community in Abidjan that progress has been made in the ongoing peace process in the country since the signing of the Ouagadougou Peace Agreement (APO) on 4 March 2007.

Boureima Badini, who is the Special Representative of President Blaise Compaore, the facilitator in the Ivorian crisis, based his optimism on the promise and commitment of the former FN rebels to begin the cantonment of their fighters next week.

He urged the international community to support Ivorians in the process in order to overcome the obstacles in implementing emergency programs.

“We are urging the international community to help gather funding in time for the process to be appropriately funded so as to end to the crisis within the prescribed deadlines,” he said.

The latest additional agreements to the APO provides for the organization of elections in June 2008.

“All the texts must be signed for the identification process and the electoral census to start and for a final date to be set for elections,” said Badini.

“We are heading toward the deadline and major decisions must be made for the process to succeed in the year 2008.”

Many observers, however, think it is impossible to have elections in June given the delays in the implementation of the peace process.

Source African Press Agency

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