South African President Thabo Mbeki took his peace mission to Ivory Coast's rebel town of Bouake on Sunday, where he was greeted by tens of thousands of people demanding President Laurent Gbagbo quit. "We don't want Gbagbo," an excited crowd chanted at the airport as Mbeki, wearing an open-necked white shirt, shook hands with rebel leader Guillaume Soro while South African military helicopters clattered overheard.
Tens of thousands of people shouting anti-Gbagbo slogans lined the road as Mbeki's convoy edged through the banner-waving crowd to a hotel for talks with rebels on the second leg of his peace mission to the world's top cocoa grower.
Mbeki, at the head of a delegation including officials from the World Bank, European Union, Economic Community of West African States and International Monetary Fund, said he was struck by the size and warmth of the welcome in Bouake.
"None of us wants to go out later in the day and say that we have contributed nothing to the resolution of the crisis," he said, before heading into closed-door meetings. "They will ask us a very difficult question: why have you let us down?"
African leaders fear West Africa could plunge further into turmoil unless a peaceful solution is found to the crisis in a country bordering Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana.