Peace Accord Reached in Ivory Coast Conflict

CAPE TOWN, South Africa â€”  Ivory Coast’s warring factions agreed Wednesday to end hostilities, start immediate disarmament and plan for elections in an effort to prevent a renewed explosion of violence.

The agreement followed four days of talks in Pretoria mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who had summoned all sides to his country’s administrative capital to try to rescue the peace process. The negotiations were the factions’ first face-to-face meeting since civil war flared again last fall in the West African nation.

“The parties ... hereby solemnly declare the immediate and final cessation of all hostilities and the end of the war through the national territory,� said the agreement signed in Pretoria.

“In this regard, they unequivocally repudiate the use of force as a means to resolve differences among themselves,� the accord said, acknowledging the “untold misery and suffering� inflicted on the Ivorian people and the disastrous economic repercussions of the fighting.

Ivory Coast has been split between the rebel-held north and loyalist south since a failed coup attempt in 2002. A peace accord was reached in France in January 2003, but to little avail. A cease-fire reached in May of the same year was violated twice by Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, raising doubts about elections.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the accord and urged all parties to follow through with their commitments “promptly and in good faith,� his spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement.

The agreement commits the warring factions to “immediately proceed with the disarmament and dismantling of the militia throughout the entire national territory� and schedules an April 14 meeting to resolve the details.

The deal was signed by Mbeki, Gbagbo, Ivorian Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, former President Henri Konan Bedie, opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and rebel leader Guillaume Soro.