Brussels, 04/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Although Laurent Gbagbo, the self-proclaimed president of Côte d'Ivoire, continues to cling on to power, the EU is preparing a second salvo of targeted sanctions, decided by the Council on 13 December last. These sanctions will be aimed at Gbagbo's supporters (a list of 19 people published on 22 December, together with 59 other people added to the list published on 31 December).
Visa restrictions will hit Laurent Gbagbo and 67 people “obstructing the peace process and endangering the appropriate election process results”. This will be added to the freezing of assets held by these Côte d'Ivoire nationals in the territory of the EU. The competent services of the Council of the EU will proceed to an examination on 6 and 10 January of the regulation proposed by the Commission to this end. The decision will be adopted on 18 January.
On Tuesday 4 January, the second attempt made by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) finished in failure, as confirmed by Goodluck Jonathan, the president of Nigeria, who chairs this regional African organisation. Threatened by military action, Laurent Gbagbo is turning a deaf ear to the three African mediators - President Boni Yayi from Benin and his counterparts, Ernest Koroma from Sierra Leone and Pedro Pires from Cap Verde - requesting that he relinquish power to Alassan Ouattara, the democratically elected president recognised by the international community.
On the same day, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, spoke out in Saint-Dizier (during the ceremony for the French Armed Forces) against any intervention from French soldiers from the Force Licorne based in Côte d'Ivoire. Quoted by Reuters, he declared that “our soldiers, the soldiers of France, have no place in interfering in the domestic affairs of Côte d'Ivoire”. (A.N./transl.fl)