African leaders head to Ivory Coast, banks closed
NOUAKCHOTT/ABIDJAN (Reuters) - African presidents tasked with resolving Ivory Coast's crisis were due in Abidjan on Monday to propose a solution to a standoff that has paralysed the world's biggest cocoa-producing country and killed some 300 people.
One source who had access to preparatory talks on Sunday said the African panel would insist that incumbent Laurent Gbagbo must stand down, in return for a number of guarantees, to allow rival Alassane Ouattara to take charge.
There was no official statement from the leaders and Gbagbo has repeatedly rejected similar proposals.
A November 28 poll that was meant to reunite the country after a decade of economic stagnation and political crisis has instead left it as divided as ever and in economic meltdown. Ouattara is widely recognised internationally as the winner, but Gbagbo has refused to cede power.
Cocoa exports have dried up, pushing futures prices to fresh highs.
The leaders of South Africa, Mauritania, Chad, Burkina Faso and Tanzania met in Mauritania on Sunday to discuss proposals drafted by African Union experts on Ivory Coast.
"We could not go back on the previous decision made by the AU commission (which has recognised Ouattara as winner of the election)," said the source, who asked not to be named.
"It was considered that the two candidates could not co-exist, so a transfer of power with guarantees to the losing party was favoured ... The high-level panel agreed on the path to be chosen but there are still many details to work out," the source added.
PARALLEL GOVERNMENTS
Ouattara and Gbagbo have formed rival parallel governments, though Ouattara remains restricted to a lagoon-side hotel protected by a ring of U.N. peacekeepers.
Witnesses said at least five people were killed over the weekend as pro-Gbagbo security forces fired tear gas and live rounds to disperse Ouattara supporters.
Citing the "rapid deterioration of the financial sector", SIB, which is part of the Moroccan Attijariwafa Group, on Monday became the latest international bank to suspend operations in the country on Monday.
Nearly all other international banks have closed up shop and Gbagbo, who remains in power with the backing of the military despite international sanctions, had pledged to re-open on Monday two French banks nationalised last week.
But finance ministry sources said Gbagbo officials were due to meet with pro-Gbagbo staff in the Ivorian branches of Societe Generale and BNP Paribas, with a view to re-opening the banks on Tuesday.
The African leaders were due to leave Mauritania on Monday morning.
Officials in Burkina Faso said President Blaise Compaore would not join the other four leaders in Abidjan, without giving any reason.
Gbagbo's supporters have repeatedly protested against Compaore's inclusion on the AU panel. They say the president, who has previously been accused of backing rebels who seized the north during the civil war and who then became mediator in the crisis, is biased in favour of Ouattara.
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