The African Union has named five heads of state and tasked them to persuade Ivorian Leader Laurent Gbagbo to relinquish power in the world’s largest cocoa producing country. Cote d'Ivoire has been gripped by a political crisis since the country's Election Commission named Alassane Ouattara, 69, winner of Nov. 28 election. This is because the incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo, 65, has refused to concede defeat, alleging voter fraud in the rebel controlled north that supports Ouattara. The new mediators include President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso(West), Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania(North), Idriss Déby of Chad(Central), Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania(East) and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa (representing the south). The five are expected to come up with a solution for the crisis within the next month, according to Director of Communications at the Presidency Koku Anyidoho. The AU’s security panel decided at a January 29 meeting in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, to appoint a mediation panel - comprising one leader from each of Africa’s five geographic regions - to resolve the stalemate. The continental grouping’s previous mediation efforts, led by Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, failed. Source: myjoyonline.com