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 ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - A rebel leader who has controlled northern Ivory Coast for four years took office Wednesday as the country's prime minister — a key step in an accord aimed at bringing a lasting peace.
"The first part of this challenge is the consolidation of trust among all Ivorians and the return of a durable peace," new Prime Minister Guillaume Soro told an audience of dignitaries and journalists as he took over the second-highest office in the country nearly five years after leading a coup attempt against President Laurent Gbagbo.
The failed coup started a civil war that was settled in 2003 with an uneasy agreement to divide Ivory Coast into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south. U.N. and French peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone between the two sides.
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