Presidents Yayi Boni of Benin, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde were meeting with Young-Jin Choi, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy and a representative of the African Union.
They are scheduled to meet with President Laurent Gbagbo and later with his challenger Alassane Ouattara, who both claimed victory in presidential elections held last month.
The three heads of state represent the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which held an emergency meeting last Friday in Nigeria and delivered an ultimatum to Gbagbo to step down or face the threat of military force.
Gbagbo’s Minister of Interior Emile Guirieoulou said Sunday the three leaders would be “received as brothers, friends.”
“We will listen to them, listen to the message they are carrying,” Guirieoulou said. “If they abide to our constitution, we’re going to talk … our Constitution is not negotiable.”
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Alcide Djedje said Gbagbo would not step down.
The Ivory Coast’s Independent Electoral Commission, backed by the United Nations, declared opposition leader Ouattara the winner of a November runoff. But its Constitutional Council invalidated those results and declared incumbent Gbagbo the winner.
The international community, including the United States, the United Nations and the African Union, have recognized Ouattara as the winner and urged Gbagbo to cede power.
The political stalemate has thrown Ivory Coast into crisis and scores of people have died in related violence.
Some 14,000 refugees have fled for neighboring Liberia, according to the U.N. refugee agency, a large number of them, children.
Last Friday, ECOWAS said it would not hesitate to use “legitimate force” if necessary to defuse the crisis.
The African Union has suspended Ivory Coast from the organization “until such a time the democratically elected president effectively assumes state power.”
The World Bank has halted lending and disbursing funds to Ivory Coast and has closed its office in the country.
Source: CNN