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Tense Relations

Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
NEWS
June 23, 2004
Posted to the web June 23, 2004

By P.e.

The new fighting highlights the difficulty of implimenting peace accords.
Those who have been monitoring events in the Côte d'Ivoire will not be
surprised with the recent outburst of fighting in the north of the country
between rival rebel groups. There are now at least three groups of rebels in
the north fighting to oust the government of President Laurent Gbagbo. These
are: the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) which was the first to take up
arms against the government. The Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP), and the
Ivoirian Popular Movement of the Great West (MPIGO).
The gun battles between rival rebel groups once more undermine the tense
relations that exist in the north of the country. According to Reuters, rebels
loyal to Guillaume Soro said heavily armed men with four-wheel drive vehicles
(backed by Ibrahim Coulibaly, a Paris-based rebel military chief known as "IB"
and rival to Soro) attempted to assassinate their leader. A spokesman for IB in
Paris denied any role in the attack on Soro.
The new fighting highlights the difficulty of peacekeeping efforts in Côte
d'Ivoire, where the United Nations and regional mediators have been struggling
to get President Laurent Gbagbo and his opponents to drop mutual hostility and
work together. With the rebels trading bullets against each other, the peace
process has taken a nosedive with mediators not knowing whom to negotiate with
or who actually represents the rebels. Côte d'Ivoire, a former French colony
and the world's biggest cocoa producer, has been split in two since a civil war
grew out of a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002.

   

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