BOUAKE (Ivory Coast): West African peacekeepers are building a wall on the road outside Tiebissou — the dividing line between Ivory Coast’s government-controlled south and the rebel-held north.

The wall, one of seven under construction at a checkpoint operated by the peacekeepers, stands barely four feet high and reaches only halfway across the road.

But the fact that so solid and formal a structure is being built at all speaks volumes about the long and tortuous road to peace the country still has to negotiate.

Ivory Coast, once lauded as the calm eye in conflict-ridden West Africa’s storm, tumbled into war last year after a failed coup.

Several ceasefires and peace accords have been signed since then, but, nearly eight months after the first clashes, the two halves are the country are still firmly separated.

And with the country now awash with guns, and one half of Ivory Coast learning to live without formal administration, Ivorians fear that peace will be a long time coming.

“If something doesn’t happen soon, President Gbabgo will be president of nothing but corpses,” said an official in the rebel stronghold of Bouake.

Those living in areas controlled by rebels say pensioners and civil servants have been unable to get at their money since the start of hostilities.

Banks in the north have been closed since September and the route to government held cities like the official capital Yamoussoukro and the coastal business centre of Abidjan is clogged with road blocks and checkpoints.—Reuters