ABIDJAN — The bid by five African leaders to resolve the deadlock in Ivory Coast is the last chance for a peaceful outcome, supporters of internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara warned Saturday.
The coalition of political parties and former rebels backing Ouattara said there would be no more opportunities after the visit later this month of the five heads of state mandated by the African Union.
In a statement, his backers said they saw the visit "as the last chance to remove Ivory Coast from crisis by peaceful means."
The panel is tasked with coming up with measures to resolve the impasse in Ivory Coast by the end of February.
Ivory Coast has been divided since Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down after presidential elections on November 28 that were won by Ouattara according to the country's election commission and the international community.
A lower-level AU team led by Ramtane Lamamra, the pan-African body's commissioner for peace and security, had talks in Abidjan this week with the two rivals, members of their parties, diplomats and representatives of civil society.
They will deliver a report on their visit to the leaders meeting on February 20 in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, prior to their own trip to Abidjan.
The panel is headed by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and includes Idriss Deby of Chad, Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso.
Ouattara's loyalists hit out Saturday at Gbagbo's "obstinacy and obsession with power" as well as "massive human rights violations" allegedly committed by his security forces.
They claimed their man would be moving into the presidential palace "very soon."
Ouattara, whose power lies mainly in the north of the country, is besieged in his camp's temporary headquarters at a hotel resort in Abidjan, while Gbagbo controls most levers of power, though economic sanctions against him are beginning to bite.
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