Hundreds of rebels and government soldiers withdrew from the former buffer zone that once split Ivory Coast and returned to their barracks in the first stage of a nationwide disarmament program expected to take three months.
Several hundred soldiers who had gathered south of the buffer zone at Tiebissou climbed into trucks on Saturday and drove to an army barracks in the capital, Yamoussoukro.
North of the buffer zone at Djebonoua, rebels also packed into vehicles and headed toward military barracks in their stronghold at Bouake, where they will eventually hand in their weapons to either be integrated into the army or demobilized.
PHOTO: AFP
``Starting today, you will quit the front lines. There is no more front in Ivory Coast," President Laurent Gbagbo told soldiers in Tiebissou, which was in government hands throughout the conflict. Tiebissou is about 350km north of the West African country's main city, Abidjan.
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who led the rebellion until a peace deal brokered in neighboring Burkina Faso in March, was also on hand.
``This day is important because this day effectively, concretely marks the beginning of disarmament," Soro said, also speaking in Tiebissou.
Both leaders later headed to Djebonoua to observe rebels withdrawing.
Ivory Coast's warring parties first agreed to disarm during a peace accord reached several months after a brief war erupted in 2002, splitting the nation in two and leaving rebels in control of the north.
In 2004, the government finally announced the start of disarmament, but the bickering parties delayed the process repeatedly -- until now.
Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa exporter, was once an oasis of stability in war-ravaged West Africa.
A 1999 coup sparked years of uprisings and eventually war.
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
RSS