French troops deploy in Ivory Coast after rioting
By Silvia Aloisi
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - France has deployed troops in Ivory Coast's main city to protect its citizens from mob violence which erupted overnight after French forces destroyed most of the small West African nation's air force.
French soldiers, who are deployed in the world's biggest cocoa grower to police a ceasefire between the government and rebels, targeted the aircraft after nine French peacekeepers were killed in a bombing raid on a rebel stronghold on Saturday.
French helicopters clattered over the lagoon city of Abidjan on Sunday as troops with machine guns and armoured vehicles manned key junctions after a night of rioting and looting left buildings gutted and cars burned out.
The former colonial power also flew in hundreds more soldiers to Abidjan and took over the airport.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said there was no immediate plan to evacuate any of its 15,000 citizens living in Ivory Coast.
French soldiers based in the West African state carried out dramatic helicopter rescue missions through Saturday night to get foreigners out of their homes as mobs wielding machetes and sticks vented their anger at the destruction of the aircraft.
"I have shoes, jeans, a shirt, watch and wedding ring. Everything else has gone," said British national Charles Sugden, who scrambled into a hovering French helicopter as youths burst on to the roof of his apartment block.
"Last night we thought we were going to get killed. I've never been so happy to see a soldier," he said from a French military base where there were about 200 evacuees.
French troops repeatedly teargassed protesters gathered outside their main base in Abidjan on Saturday and Sunday. They fired shots from helicopters into the lagoon during the night to disperse mobs heading for the airport.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie described the situation on Sunday as "critical but under control".
Violence began escalating on Thursday when President Laurent Gbagbo's forces broke an 18-month ceasefire to launch air raids on the rebel-held north.
Ivorian warplanes killed nine French soldiers and a U.S. aid worker and wounded more than 20 other French peacekeepers at a French base in the rebel stronghold of Bouake on Saturday.
France responded by destroying two Ivorian warplanes and five helicopters -- almost all of the small air force's fleet.
COMMANDERS ORDER PULLBACK
Deprived of its advantage in the air and facing pressure to defuse tensions, the army then ordered troops mounting a ground offensive on the north to pull back from the front line.
"It is with death in my soul, with many regrets and with tears in my eyes that I ask you to pull back from your positions because unfortunately we have lost our air power," Colonel Philippe Mangou told soldiers in the capital Yamoussoukro.
An Ivorian army spokesman said on state television that the warplanes had inadvertently struck the French base.
The United Nations Security Council, the African Union and the European Union all launched urgent appeals for an end to the violence. France readied a Security Council resolution to impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on all belligerents.
The AU said it had mandated South African President Thabo Mbeki to try to mediate a political solution to the crisis.
Supporters of Gbagbo accused Paris of trying to oust the president and take control of the country's natural resources.
"France has decided to humiliate us, to scorn our independence and to drag our dignity and sovereignty through the mud," former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan said.
But Barnier insisted Paris was only interested in bringing stability to the country.
"France is in no way there to destabilise Ivory Coast and its institutions or to take sides," he said in a statement.
Ivory Coast has been split in two since a failed attempt by dissident soldiers to oust Gbagbo in September 2002. The rebels took control of the north while Gbagbo held the south. |