Cote d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro, leader of the rebel group New Forces (NF), signed a peace deal in the capital of Burkina Faso Ouagadougou Sunday, outlining details to revive the peace process stalled for years by disagreements.
According to the accord, the two sides agreed to form a new unity government within five weeks, create a new joint military command involving the government military and the rebels, disarm the rebels and militia, dismantle the vast buffer zone patrolled by the United Nations and French peacekeeping forces, and to restart the identification process to register every eligible voter.
"It is peace through Africans, and I am proud of it because all the problems in Africa can find a solution here on the continent," Gbagbo said after signing the agreement.
Soro said his NF rebels were committed to the deal, stressing that "peace is strongly possible in Cote d'Ivoire."
Former colonial power France hailed the agreement, saying it should enable peacekeepers to begin pulling out immediately.
Some 7,000 UN and 3,500 French troops have been deployed to patrol the buffer zone cutting from east to west through the country, in a bid to prevent fighting in the country.
Cote d'Ivoire has been plunged into a civil war and split into the rebel-held north and government-controlled south since a coup failed to oust Gbagbo in September 2002.
Last December, Gbagbo called for "direct dialogue" with the NF rebels so as to revive the peace process in the west African country.
The peace talks, brokered by Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore, kicked off on Feb. 5 in Ouagadougou.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2007)
