West African leaders met for the final day of a summit on Thursday under pressure to act on Ivory Coast, while the head of their regional bloc sent a letter to Laurent Gbagbo condemning violent rhetoric.
Leaders from West African bloc ECOWAS were expected to issue a statement on the crisis later in the day, after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said they may ask the United Nations to take further action.
The summit comes three months after the 15-nation ECOWAS threatened to use force to oust Ivory Coast strongman Gbagbo, who has defied calls to step down following November elections. The country now stands on the brink of civil war.
ECOWAS announced on Thursday that the head of the bloc's commission, James Victor Gbeho, had sent a letter to Gbagbo condemning violent rhetoric and accusations of regional nations sending mercenaries to the country.
Gbagbo's camp has accused Nigeria's leader, the current ECOWAS chairman, of transporting hundreds of mercenaries to Ivory Coast to support Alassane Ouattara, recognised by much of the world as elected president.
The letter referred to what it said was a speech by Charles Ble Goude, Gbagbo's fiery youth leader, "inciting his followers to take arms against the citizens of other ECOWAS member states and accusing some of the states of supplying mercenaries to opponents in the Ivorian crisis."
"The ECOWAS commission strongly disapproves of such vitriolic hate speech and takes a serious view of calls to attack innocent citizens of other countries living in Cote d'Ivoire," the letter said.
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