Leaders of Ivory Coast's formerly rebel New Forces (FN), who have controlled the north of the country since 2002, on Tuesday relinquished power to prefects in a key step towards reunification.
"Civilian administrative duties in the territory are exercised exclusively by prefectorial authorities (district administrators) as of the signing of the present document," said a text signed by FN leader and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro.
The official handover took place at a ceremony in Bouake, a rebel stronghold town in central Ivory Coast, where military power in rebel territory was also turned over to forces of a joint command.
The ceremony at the district administrative headquarters "consecrates the readiness of the signatories to the (peace) accord to complete reunification and to go on through to the end of the crisis," Soro said.
The act of transfer specified that "security missions" would be carried out by the Integrated Command Centre (CCI), comprising the general staffs of the army and the ex-rebels, and that "in matters of maintaining or reestablishing order, the prefectoral authorities must report to the CCI."
The text was also signed by FN chief of general staff General Soumaila Bakayoko and the director general of territorial administration under President Laurent Gbagbo, Gaspard Sehi.
Ivory Coast has been divided since a foiled coup against Gbagbo in September 2002, when the FN took and kept control of the northern half of the cocoa-rich country in west Africa, once a regional economic powerhouse.
The future of the 10 "com-zones" in FN hands for more than six years led to quarrels between the former rebels and Gbagbo's supporters, and the transfer of power, due in January under the latest peace pact signed at the end of 2008, was twice postponed.
Gbagbo said late last month that the transfer of power to prefects in the north would get rid of the "com-zones".
"This ceremony is not a humiliation for the com-zones," said FN spokesman Sidike Konate, while Soro stated that Ivory Coast should proceed into "calming elections" after its troubles.
Both sides are gearing up for a presidential election on November 29, a poll that has also been delayed several times during a marathon peace process. After Tuesday's transfer of power and military arrangements, security ahead of the vote is to be maintained by joint CCI brigades.
Asked what would happen to the former rebel military commands, Konate ruled out a "systematic dismantling" of the FN's security structure and stated that ex-rebel troops would be stationed in four barracks, as already provided for in the peace accord.
He gave no further details of the arrangements.
Several hundred troops have so far been deployed, out of the 8,000 intended to be stationed across the country at the end of the process.
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