Mbeki intervenes in Ivory Coast crisis

South African President Thabo Mbeki is making an emergency visit to Ivory Coast in a bid to restore calm in the country.

Mbeki was expected to meet with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, South Africa's foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said.

“Up until last night the president was still in talks with various leaders about the situation in Ivory Coast,” Mamoepa said.

Mbeki began consultations with leaders from the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, after Ivorian warplanes launched a surprise airstrike at the weekend that killed nine French peacekeepers and a US civilian aid worker in the rebel-held north.

The government later called the bombing a mistake. In retaliation, France destroyed Ivory Coast’s small air force.

The African Union condemned Ivory Coast’s attack and said it would send Mbeki to press for a political solution.

Mamoepa would not say when Mbeki and his ministers would arrive in Ivory Coast or how long they would stay there.

Mbeki is being accompanied by South Africa’s defence minister, Mosiuoa Lekota and deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, he said.

Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer and West Africa’s former economic powerhouse.

It has been divided into rebel-controlled north and government-controlled south since a September 2002 coup attempt threw the country into civil war.

A 2003 peace deal, brokered under pressure from former colonial ruler France and others, ended major fighting until the government broke the ceasefire by attacking rebel positions.