Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The Chief of staff of former Ivorian Aremed Forces of the New Forces (FAFN), Brig. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The Ivorian New Forces (ex-rebels) indicated Thursday that they would not appoint any representative to the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) for the tie being because the procedure used in its creation violated the Linas-Marcoussis agreement signed in January 2003. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Cote d'Ivoire, Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, has condemned last weekend's military attack by unidentified individuals against several towns in the country's southern part. Full text...

Bouake- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The leader of the Ivorian New Forces (ex-rebels), Guillaume Soro, announced in Bouake Monday that he plans to complain to the African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki of South Africa that the presidential decrees issued on 15 July violated the January 2003 Linas Marcoussis peace agreements. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Political analysts on have alarmed that the Ivorian peace process might experience a major setback if the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of the former fighters were not held on schedule. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The Ivorian Labour Party (PIT) led by jurist, Pr Francis Wodie has demanded investigations that will identify and penalise perpetrators of human rights abuses in Duekoue (western Cote d'Ivoire) early June. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Guere militiamen from the We People's Patriotic Alliance (APWE) in western Cote d'Ivoire on Monday killed four persons including three people of the Diula ethnic group and a Burkina national in Duékoué, 484 west of Abidjan. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- An Ivorian politician, Francis Wodie, on Friday described the nomination of Faure Gnassingbé to succeed his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who died last Saturday, as a violation of the Togolese people's dignity. Full text...

Abidjan- Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Several Ivorians wounded during the 6-9 November anti-French riots in Abidjan on Wednesday assured President Laurent Gbagbo of the readiness to return to the streets if France persists in its attempt to topple him "Although my foot has been amputated, I am prepared to use clutches to walk to the front so as to liberate the country," asserted Jean Claude Sodoua (29), whose leg was a hit by a bullet during those anti-French riots in the Ivorian business capital. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Peace-loving Ivorians need to side-line the current leaders in their country and assume the task of restoring peace in Cote d'Ivoire, Dr Diallo Boubacar, the co- ordinator of the International Network of Strategic studies on African Conflicts (RIESCA) told PANA in Niamey Thursday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- South African President Thabo Mbeki is Tuesday expected to undertake an urgent mission to Abidjan to initiate dialogue among opposing parties in keeping with a mandate of the African Union (AU), according to sources at the AU Commission here. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Saturday called for an immediate halt to renewed fighting in Cote d'Ivoire, after a meeting convened by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in his capacity as AU chairman. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Expressing concern about the resumption of hostilities in Bouake, Cote d'Ivoire, African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konaré has called on the opposing sides in the West African country to exercise maximum restraint. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Charles Ble Goude, leader of the "Young patriots," a movement supporting Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, Thursday prevented French and ONUCI peacekeepers from driving across the country "until President Gbagbo returns" from a private visit to the US. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has expressed "grave concern" about renewed violence in Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Ghana's two sea ports at Tema in the east and Takoradi in the west are reaping economic benefits from the Ivorian crisis, since transit cargo for several landlocked countries in the region are now diverted to the two ports. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Ivorian population has properly handled the crisis raging in Cote d'Ivoire, which only reflects the failure of our country's politicians," says a musician Frederic Ehui alias Meiway. Full text...

Praia- Cape Verde (PANA) -- Vera Duarte, a Cape Verde lawyer and member of the UN panel that probed the bloody repression of an opposition protest in Abidjan last 25 March, has expressed pessimism about the evolution of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- UN agencies and Humanitarian NGOs have provided relief aid to people displaced in Bangolo, 716 km west of Abidjan in the aftermath of community violence in the area last month. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Moroccan soldiers have since last Saturday been arriving in Yamoussoukro, 255 km north of Abidjan with the last group of 79 men flying in Tuesday to strengthen the UN peacekeeping force in Côte d'Ivoire, according to officials of the UN Operations in (ONUCI). Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Ivorian national education minister Amani Michel has decided that private schools that went on strike recently demanding that over 14 billion CFA francs European Union funds be allocated to them directly -- and not through the government -- will be barred from hosting school examinations. Full text...

Abidjan- Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Sylvain Miaka Ouretto, Secretary of the Ivorian ruling People's Front, FPI says the national reconciliation process has broken down and called on all stakeholders to "re-launch" it. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The chairman of Cote d'Ivoire ruling Ivorian Popular Front (IPF) Affi Nguessan on Thursday denounced inconsistencies in a report by United Nations investigators, which accused the country's top leadership of masterminding the killing of peaceful demonstrators in Abidjan on 25-26 March. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- A draft bill on the identification of foreigners and their stay is among several draft laws submitted before the Ivorian parliament, which started a plenary session in Abidjan Friday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Members of the National Federation of Ware Victims of Cote d'Ivoire (FENAVIG-CI) on Tuesday suspended a hunger strike under ways since 18 April at the Cathedral in Plateau, the business area of the Ivorian economic capital before meeting President Laurent Gbagbo Wednesday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The politburo of the opposition Rally of Republicans (RDR) headed by former Ivorian Prime minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara on Thursday suspend the participation of its seven ministers in cabinet sessions and the government of national reconciliation. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Seven out of 10 signatory parties of the Linas-Marcoussis and Accra II peace agreements "G7" on Wednesday evening maintained their protest march scheduled Thursday in Abidjan to press for the full implementation of the accords. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the current ECOWAS chairman arrived here Wednesday and held talks with his Ivorian counterpart Laurent Gbagbo in a bid to defuse the rising tension on the eve of an opposition protest demonstration in Abidjan Thursday. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- The huge task of disarming Liberia's estimated 40, 000 combatants and the looming threat of resumption of hostilities in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire consumed editorial pages of Liberia's two leading private dailies on Thursday. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Guillaume Soro, leader of the Ivorian rebel "New Forces" Monday in Niamey urged the UN and the African Union to prop the Ivorian reconciliation process. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- African Union (AU) Commission's chairperson Alpha Oumar Konaré said here Tuesday the decision by Cote d'Ivoire's New Forces to withdraw its ministers from the cabinet might compromise the peace process in the troubled West African country. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Representatives of the African Network of Ivorian Intellectuals for Peace, Democracy and Governance have declared their support for the Marcoussis agreements signed last January in France to end the military uprising in Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Ivorian Prime Minister Seydou Diarra Saturday vowed to carry out his mandate with determination until 2005. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Cote d'Ivoire needs at least 60 billion FCFA (about $91 million Euro) to demobilise and reintegrate combatants of the rebellion that broke out on 19 September 2002 in the country, Prime Minister Seydou Elimane Diarra announced here Friday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The Bollore Group has recorded a loss of 10 billion francs CFA in Cote d'Ivoire due to the armed rebellion that broke out on 19 September 2002, Etienne Giros, director of the group's Africa Development unit conceded here Tuesday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A group of Ivorians Sunday in Paris expressed their support to President Laurent Gbagbo, whose country has been experiencing an armed rebellion since 19 September. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Cote d'Ivoire Human Rights League has called for a "credible probe" into circumstances surrounding two mass graves discovered recently in rebel-controlled areas. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Ivorian musician Alpha Blondy has appealed to opponents in the current crisis in Cote d'Ivoire to work for the normalisation of the situation. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Over eight million tons of Malian goods are still blocked at Abidjan Port, Cote d'Ivoire's economic capital, sources at the Malian Council of Loaders said here Friday. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Mali's Alliance for the Republic (ARD) which groups about a dozen political parties on Monday expressed concern about developments in Cote d'Ivoire where a portion of the army has mutinied. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Cote d'Ivoire is sliding back into the socio-political crisis that prevailed before the national reconciliation forum held earlier this year, the head of a local NGO warned in Abidjan Monday. Full text...