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Ivorien Civil War: French Troops Halt Rebels' Advance

Daily Trust (Abuja)
NEWS
October 2, 2002
Posted to the web October 2, 2002

Ivory Coast's rebels com-plained yesterday that their advance was being blocked
by French soldiers as the former colonial power sent in more paratroops to help
back West African mediation efforts.
Putting a name to their shadowy group in public for the first time since their
failed September 19 coup, rebels of the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast said
they aimed to take the main city of Abidjan and ultimately to hold fresh
elections.
Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands displaced in the 13-day
rebellion in the world's top cocoa producer, which has shaken a region already
battered by savage conflicts.
A key adviser of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo told Reuters that the
government's top priority was now to retake the northern city of Bouake from
rebel troops to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
Rebels said they captured the village of Sakassou, 40km (25 miles) south of the
second city of Bouake on Monday, but had been stopped from advancing east by
French soldiers sent on a mission to help foreigners escape.
"We agreed with the French on a truce for the evacuation of foreigners, but now
they are stopping us from moving forward," rebel Corporal George Kouassi, told
Reuters.
A French military spokesman said the army had not stopped anyone, but had set
up a security perimeter of 20km (13 miles) around the official capital,
Yamoussoukro, another key target of rebels hovering some 50km (30 miles) from
the city.
Crack Foreign Legionnaires beefed up positions near Bouake overnight after
France sent 70 men from the 11th Paratroop Brigade of Ivory Coast on Monday to
set up a tactical headquarters before the possible arrival of a West African
force.
Key Gbagbo Adviser, Alain Toussaint, told Reuters in Paris by telephone that
the situation was getting worse by the day in Bouake and other northern towns.
"Government forces have no other choice but to win control of Bouake to avoid a
humanitarian catastrophe," he said, adding that food supplies were running low
and that hospitals and other care centres were closed.
Asked whether his comments meant government troops were about to launch an
offensive, Toussaint said simply: "Government forces will move on to the next
phase of their mission."
Ministers from Nigeria, Ghana and Togo talked until late on Monday with
President Gbagbo at the start of their bid to find a peaceful outcome to a
crisis which has rocked the region.
"He reaffirmed his government's willingness to declare a ceasefire as long as
it would be respected by the rebel troops," said a statement from the 15-nation
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc.
A date or venue has still to be set for a meeting between rebels and ministers
from six countries appointed to mediate. Rebels said the mediators had not yet
been in touch.
West African leaders warned at an emergency summit in Ghana on Sunday that they
would deploy a military force in Ivory Coast, effectively to prevent any
further rebel advance, if the mediation failed.
Rebels holding the northern swathe of Ivory Coast said they were fighting to
end discrimination in the country of 16 million, which is increasingly
polarised along ethnic lines.
A rebel spokesman calling himself simply Lieutenant Elinder told reporters in
Bouake that they wanted fresh general elections to replace a turbulent 2000
polls, from which opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara, was barred.
"We just want a very short transition and to give the right to any Ivorian to
contest," said Elinder who, like Ouattara, is from the north.

   

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