Sall Mediates Ivorian Reconciliation Bids

A statement from the presidency said that Sall, “in consultation” with his Ivorian counterpart Alassane Ouattara, met with a delegation from the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo on Thursday.

The meeting was held “as a contribution to national reconciliation efforts in Ivory Coast”, the statement said, without elaborating.

One issue is whether the FPI will take part in municipal and local elections planned for 2013, after it boycotted parliamentary polls at the end of 2011.

It is the first time that leaders of the FPI have been received by a head of state since the fall of Gbagbo in April 2011.

The former president refused to acknowledge an election loss to Ouattara, a decision that plunged the country into its second armed conflict in a decade.

Holed up in Abidjan, Gbagbo was eventually ousted in April 2011, following two weeks of fierce street fighting that is estimated to have claimed 3 000 lives in the west African country.

Gbagbo is currently awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on four counts of crimes against humanity.- AFP