Ivory Coast prime minister announces new ‘unity’ government 2 weeks after last 1 dissolved

Ivory Coast’s PM announces new ‘unity’ government

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Ivory Coast’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro announced a new unity government late Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the president unilaterally dissolved the last one, setting off deadly protests across the country.

The new government will be made up of 27 ministers drawn from both presidential and opposition parties, ending a standoff between the sides and offering hope of a stop to violence that has left at least seven people dead.

Only 16 ministers were named during the announcement in the economic capital of Abidjan. Although the remaining 11 have not been named, Soro said that all sides have agreed on the party breakdown of the unfilled posts. The ministers will be chosen before the first cabinet meeting on Thursday, Soro said.

The announcement of a new government capped 48 hours of crisis negotiations, in which Burkina Faso’s president Blaise Compaore flew in to mediate discussions between President Laurent Gbagbo and the opposition parties.

Earlier in the day, Djedje Madi, general secretary of the RHDP coalition of opposition parties, said that they had received the assurances they needed from Gbagbo to join a new government after resisting for 10 days.

However, he added that the opposition maintained its standing call for protests to put pressure on the president to follow through on his promise to form a new electoral commission by Thursday.

At least five protesters were killed in Gagnoa and another two in Abidjan during violent protests in the last week.

Soro said that he hoped the new government would calm the protests. “Ivory Coast is going through some difficult moments,” Soro said. “I call upon everyone to keep their calm.”

The discord began when Gbagbo dissolved the government claiming the electoral commission committed fraud. The move came only weeks before scheduled presidential elections to replace him, delaying them once again.

The objective of the new government, Soro said “is to organize elections with haste.”

Burkina Faso’s Compaore said with the formation of the new government, elections will likely be held in late April or early May.

Ivory Coast has been divided between a rebel-controlled north and a government-controlled south since war broke out in 2002. The sides formed a unity government in 2007 and were preparing for presidential elections when Gbagbo dissolved the government on Feb. 12. Presidential elections have been postponed every year since 2005, when Gbagbo’s term ended.