By IRNA,
Pretoria : The Economic Community of West African States on Wedensday criticized South Africa for sending a ‘warship’ to Ivory Coast.
The head of the 15-nation ECOWAS told a news conferece in Abuja, Nigeria: “There is a South African warship docked in Cote d’Ivoire.”
“Action such as that can only complicate the matter further.”
James Victor Gbeho of ECOWAS which has priviously threatened to use force to oust Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo, chided South Africa as a non-ECOWAS member for interfereing in Ivory Coast.
Meanwhile, South African ambassador in Abuja said it was a support vessel dispatched to the region and not meant for any military purpose.
Kingsley Mamabolo said: ‘A similar arrangement was used for the Democratic Republic of Congo years back when South Africa mediated, the harmless support vessel had initially docked in Ghana and it could be used for evacuation. It’s not meant to go and intervene militarily.’
“It’s ridiculous for anybody to suspect that South Africa would want to do a thing of that nature,” he said.
“We have in the past sent ships to other troubled areas of the world especially in Africa which are not combat ships, but support ships for various reasons such as a venue for neutral negotiation, or in the event of evacuation.’
Mamabolo reitrated, ‘South Africa will never, ever intervene without consulting the regional bloc, in this case ECOWAS, and that we will never do anything that has not been authorised or mandated by the African Union.”