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An
Ivory Coast rebel passes a burned-out government forced armored
car
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ABIDJAN,
December 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - French troops Saturday,
November 30, began evacuating scores of foreign nationals from a
rebel-held town in western Ivory Coast after seizing control of the
airport, as the more than two-month-old conflict in the west African
country escalated.
The
French military said one French soldier was wounded and at least five
rebels were killed in exchanges of gunfire around the town of Man on
Saturday and on Friday in nearby Bangolo, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
“The
clashes were sometimes violent, and we have each responded firmly,”
said French Colonel Christian Baptiste, adding that the rebel death toll
may be much higher as French troops have been unable to search the
surrounding areas where vegetation was too thick.
“We
have begun evacuating French citizens and any other foreign nationals
who so desire, from the towns of Man and Danane where the situation is
extremely difficult,” he told AFP by telephone.
Man
and nearby Danane were Thursday, November 28, captured by new groups who
have taken up arms against President Laurent Gbagbo, who has since
mid-September lost control of half his country to insurgents.
Army
spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia told AFP said more than
80 people were airlifted out of Man Saturday evening, and between 80 and
90 more were expected to leave during the night.
A
further 15 people were also evacuated from the nearby town of Danane,
where the operation is complete, Leccia said.
The
French mission in Ivory Coast, Operation Unicorn, is mandated to protect
the 20,000 French nationals in the country and to monitor a now tattered
ceasefire between rebels and the Ivorian army in the former French
colony.
A
spokesman for the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Far West (MPIGO)
Saturday warned France to remain “neutral” in their fight against
Gbagbo’s forces.
“France
is here to facilitate a ceasefire, not to intervene... If the French
were again to attack our positions, they will be raising the specter of
Rwanda,” MPIGO spokesman Guillaume Gbatto told AFP, referring to the
1990s civil war there.
His
group and the Movement for Justice and Peace (MPJ) this week opened a
new front in the west, and Gbatto said they had formed a “loose
alliance”.
“If
the French were to impose anything whatsoever on us, we will take this
as a sign that France wants to oppose the MPIGO and the MPJ,” he
added.
The
rebels fighting on the western front have said they are followers of
slain former military leader Robert Guei, and their emergence has
deepened the crisis in Ivory Coast, the worst since independence in
1960.
It
began on September 19 when another rebel group, the Ivory Coast
Patriotic Movement (MPCI), took up arms and rapidly seized control of
the northern half of the country.
Guei
was suspected of masterminding that uprising and was shot dead in
Abidjan on the first day of fighting.
The
army and the MPCI signed a ceasefire on October 17, but the truce was
shattered on Thursday when they clashed anew in the western Daloa-Vavoua
region, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Man.
Fighting
between those two rivals has since eased.
But
the MPIGO and MJP on Saturday morning clashed with government troops at
Toulepleu, some 90 kilometers (60 miles) south of Danane, the French
army said.
The
rebels said the army had earlier launched air attacks on their positions
at Danane, which lies near the border with Liberia, and killed 59 people
- among them 15 women and 20 children.
The
International Committee of the Red Cross said the hospital in Danane had
reported receiving one body and 20 wounded.
Other
sources said the rebels had looted the town after taking control on
Thursday.
The
western fighters have said they want to avenge Guei’s death and vowed
to march to the Atlantic to take San Pedro, Ivory Coast’s second
harbor.
Ivory
Coast produces 40 percent of the world’s cocoa and half of its harvest
is exported from San Pedro.
The
country’s economy, one of the strongest in the region, has been shaken
by the conflict which has also inflamed simmering ethnic and religious
tensions.
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