A prominent member of President Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party has called upon Cote d'Ivoire's independent prime minister, Seydou Diarra, to resign, following the refusal of rebel forces to start disarming on October 15, as planned.
Former prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, the president of FPI, told Diarra to quit at a press conference on Saturday, according to an IRIN report on Monday.
He said the broad-based government of national reconciliation headed by Diarra should be disolved because it had shown "no concern whatsoever" at the rebels' failure to disarm.
Affi N'Guessan also urged the country to prepare for a possible resumption of war against rebels who have occupied the north since a civil war broke out two years ago.
The FPI and its allies "demand that the consensus prime minister, Mr. Seydou Elimane Diarra, show courage and dignity by resigning from his post without delay," Affi N'Guessan said.
At the same time, he called on Gbagbo to appoint a new "Government of National Safeguard." Affi N'Guessan told IRIN that this would be "a government comprised of patriots who will fight for national integrity and reconciliation." (Albawaba.com)
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