Ghana shuts down embassy in Cote d’Ivoire

THE writing was on the wall as soon as President JEA Mills of Ghana uttered the controversial dziwo fie asem words which betrayed the regional body, ECOWAS, and, by extension, the wish of the majority of Ivorians to have their electoral mandate respected by the defeated incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo.

The New Statesman can confirm that the entire staff of Ghana’s embassy in Abidjan, including the ambassador, Col E K T Donkor (rtd), have been evacuated to Ghana and the mission closed down.

This evacuation, according to embassy sources, was forced by perceived or real threats to the lives of the staff of the embassy after Laurent Gbagbo’s arrest and Alassane Ouattara taking full charge as the legitimately elected president of Cote d’Ivoire.

The reaction of the opposition New Patriotic Party in Ghana has been swift and damning. Nana Akomea, the Communications Director of the NPP, told the New Statesman, when reached for his party’s comment, said, “it was a likely consequent of the President’s blunder which we warned was reckless, compromised our national and regional security and exposed the lives of Ghanaians to danger.”

When contacted for his comments by on this latest development the Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, wondered who Ghanaians in La Cote d'Ivoire would turn to if they needed any form of assistance.

Over 1.5 millions Ghanaians are estimated to be domiciled in Cote d’Ivoire and fears of reprisals have gripped them as many Ivorians see Gbagbo’s international friends, particularly President Mills, as the ones who fed fuel to Gbagbo’s deadly intransigence and recalcitrance which sent the country back into a civil war until a UN and French-backed military intervention led to Gbagbo’s arrest on April 11.

Our sources at the Foreign Affairs Ministry here in Accra say the ambassador and the last of his team were flown out secretly from Abidjan Monday night to Accra on board Ghana’s presidential jet.

A diplomatic source in Abidjan described the decision by Accra to evacuate its staff as “strange and paradoxical and probably fed by paranoia and guilt.”

Ironically, the decision by President Mills to recall Ghana’s ambassador comes at a time when efforts are being made to return Abidjan and other parts of the country to normalcy.

Our intelligence sources point to two things that might have influenced this evacuation. First, the overwhelming anger and betrayal that pro-Ouattara forces and ordinary Ivorians felt by the decision of President Mills to speak against the collective decision of ECOWAS on December 24 to exert pressure on Gbagbo to quit or be forced out.

The second thing cited was the decision by some pro-Government group in Accra to stage a demonstration on Tuesday, April 12, the day after Gbagbo’s arrest. This was seen as an affront to Ouattara’s authority, coming after the day he was seeking to take complete control of the Ivorian situation.

They also point to the decision by the Ghana police to not oppose the demonstration, even though it was argued by opposition members in Accra that the organisers of the demonstration were allowed to protest without the mandatory five-day notice. The organisers denied this charge, though.

Prof Mills on the third anniversary of his presidency chose to speak against any use of military force and both Prof Gbagbo and Gbagbo’s foreign minister repeatedly named President Mills as one of seven African leaders who were on his side even when the rest of the world was asking him to go.

Ghana refused to sack Gbagbo’s ambassador for the duration of the crisis, adding to suspicions that Ghana was heavily on the side of Gbagbo.

Many Ivorians saw this as offering Mr Gbagbo false hope, feeding his intransigence which, after nearly five months, led to over 1,500 deaths and over a million Ivorians displaced, and hundreds of thousands as refugees in neighbouring countries, including Ghana.

At his January 7 press conference at the Castle, Accra, President Mills chose to throw, what NPP Chairman Jake Obestebi-Lamptey described as, “a very unhelpful lifeline to Gbagbo’s illegitimate hold on power.”

He said to a question from a journalist, “It is not for Ghana to choose a leader for Cote d’Ivoire. As a person I don’t think this military option is going to bring peace to the nation. I don’t want to be saddled with a problem we can’t settle.”

At the time when Ivorians were looking onto international support, Ghana’s President said that Ghanaians would mind their own business as Ghanaians “and, in other words, leave our neighbours to burn,” stressed Mr Obestebi-Lamptey in response.

In his own words, President Mills said, ‘dzi wo fie asem.’’

Alassane Ouattara of the Rally of the Republicans won the November 28 presidential runoff with 2,483,164 votes, representing 54.1% of the 4,590,219 valid votes cast.

Laurent Gbagbo of the ruling Ivorian people’s Front lost with 2,107,055 (45.9%0, a margin of more than 400,000 votes.