Hopes for Ivory Coast

Is Ivory Coast finally emerging from crisis?  Under the Ouagadougou Process, a peace deal inked in March aimed at reuniting the West African state, rival sides are due to begin a disarmament process on Saturday.

It is the latest attempt to reunite the coffee and cocoa-rich country, which was split into a government-held south and a rebel-held north after a foiled coup against President Laurent Gbagbo in September 2002.  The plan was announced after a meeting last week between Officers of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) loyal to Gbagbo and leaders of the Forces Nouvelles (FN), the former rebel militia groups that control the north. The process will be overseen by UN peacekeepers and the French troops deployed in France's former colony under Operation Licorne (Unicorn).

The Ouagadougou agreement stipulates that rebel forces will be gradually drafted into the country's regular army.

Ouagadougou had always stalled around the issue of the disarmament of FN fighters, with few ideas of how to incentivise the former rebels.  The interim government has also been slow to identify citizens, provide a credible election process and collect weapons still held by militias. It remains to be seen how rebel forces, especially the powerful sector commanders, respond to a loss of power, income and prestige from the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process.