Jonathan met with Ouattara over the crises in Guinea-Bissau and Mali (AFP, Sia Kambou) |
ABIDJAN — Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Wednesday that
West Africa will within days send a team to Guinea-Bissau for new talks
on steering the coup-torn country back to constitutional rule.
Jonathan
made the announcement after flying into Abidjan for a whirlwind meeting
with Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara, the current head of the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), on tackling the
political crises in Guinea-Bissau and Mali.
The two leaders
discussed "sending a team back to Guinea-Bissau that is likely to leave
tomorrow or the day after to take a position that we believe will return
the country to normal democratic governance," Jonathan told
journalists.
The team will hold talks on sending in ECOWAS troops
to oversee the transition and will include Ivory Coast's defence
minister and a top official from Nigeria's foreign ministry, said
Ivorian Coast Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan.
Tension
remains high in Guinea-Bissau after the April 12 coup, which aborted a
presidential election. The former ruling party ousted in the putsch has
rejected plans to install a new interim president, demanding that the
coup first be reversed.
At a summit in Senegal last month, West
African leaders threatened tougher action against coup leaders in both
Guinea-Bissau and Mali if they continue to stall efforts to restore
democratic rule.
Jonathan and Ouattara also "briefly" discussed the crisis in Mali, said the Ivorian foreign minister.
ECOWAS
has floated the prospect of sending troops into northern Mali, now
controlled by Tuareg and Islamist rebels who launched a sweeping
offensive after a March 22 coup.
Nigeria's support is seen as crucial to any such military intervention.
West
Africa's largest military power, Nigeria has itself been shaken by
attacks linked to Islamist group Boko Haram, which analysts say has ties
to the Al-Qaeda branch operating in Mali.
ECOWAS has also called
on Mali's coup leaders, who officially handed power to a transitional
government last month, to allow for swift elections, but the ex-junta
has rejected the demand.
Jonathan, who leads Africa's most
populous nation, left Abidjan immediately after his meeting with
Ouattara to head to a World Economic Forum meeting in Addis Ababa on
Africa's growth potential. - AFP
09/05/2012
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